| 📰 Were you forwarded this email? Maine Politics Insider includes a BDN subscription and custom datasets for subscribers that you will only find here. Subscribe here, and here's how to donate to the BDN. |
|
| 📷 Maine Gov. Janet Mills speaks at the summer meeting of the National Governors Association in Salt Lake City on July 11, 2024. (AP photo by Rick Bowmer) |
|
Opening day news and notes
❗ The governor is warning of a tight budget.
◉ Money has rarely been an issue during the tenure of Gov. Janet Mills. It will be one for the new crop of lawmakers assembling Wednesday, who were greeted with a Tuesday memo from her budget chief warning of an immediate shortfall of $118 million in the MaineCare program. Read the memo.
◉ Republicans agreed with Mills while blaming spending initiatives from Democrats. But the governor's warning can be read largely as a warning to her own party. Last year, she pocket-vetoed dozens of bills that the last crop of Democratic leaders passed on the final day of the session.
◉ The first step for Mills will be a supplemental budget covering the MaineCare gap with an increase in projected revenue. Then she will offer a two-year budget that figures to be tight given her rhetoric and a $450 million shortfall.
🆕 The first bills of 2025 cover energy, voting and ... reptiles?
◉ The Legislature is starting to publish the first bills of the year, although cloture is on Friday and members can still submit things. Early business will be focused on sending early bills to committees, but rule changes including limits on vague "concept drafts" are moving toward passage.
◉ L.D. 1, the initial bill typically saved for major priorities, is a storm preparedness measure from Mills and legislative leaders that should easily pass. Among the bills that caught my eye were ones from Republicans on voter ID and ending solar subsidies as well as a Democratic pay transparency measure that died last session amid business opposition.
◉ But that's not all. We will have a state reptile and amphibian if Rep. Laurie Osher, D-Orono, has her way. She wants to give those titles to the wood turtle and the spring peeper, respectively.
🔮 What's the session going to be like?
◉ Matt Gagnon, the BDN's conservative columnist, recently predicted that this will be a contentious legislative session given the smaller Democratic margins of control and the significant rural-urban polarization from the 2024 election.
◉ I generally agree, but things should also be more predictable. House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, and Senate President Mattie Daughtry, D-Brunswick, are more aligned with Mills than their predecessors were. The governor often clashed with House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, including when Talbot Ross threatened to not support a budget unless Mills supported a tribal-rights package. (The threat went nowhere.)
◉ Republicans have some opportunities, especially in the House with a 73-member minority. If they can find a little help from rural Democrats, they will be able to kill things or advance them to the Senate. |
|
| ☎️ Need to reach new members of the Legislature? We've pulled together their contact info for Insiders to have in one place. See it here. |
|
What I'm hearing
Responsibly sourced gossip from the halls of power.
🫏 Here's a theory on the first major Democratic gubernatorial candidate.
◉ Last month, my phone was abuzz with Democratic sources who were hearing that former Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, could declare a run for governor as soon as December. He did not, but he still is a strong candidate to be the first major candidate out of the gate.
◉ Jackson is no longer in office, so he has few constraints. The labor Democrat may also need to time to ramp up after he was forsaken by the party establishment when he ran in a 2nd District primary in 2014.
◉ Behind the scenes, Democratic operatives are confident that Jackson will run alongside Rep. Jared Golden of the 2nd District, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and potentially Hannah Pingree, the head of Mills' policy office. (They and Jackson were mum on their plans last month.)
◉ Jackson did not respond to inquiries on the topic from the BDN's Billy Kobin this week. When Billy checked in on Christmas Eve, his texted reply was: "Tell Mike to quit being such a Scrooge and let you go celebrate Christmas!" I like to think I'm the late-movie Michael Caine one.
What are you hearing? Send tips to mshepherd@bangordailynews.com. |
|
| 💰 Want to sponsor Maine Politics Insider? Write our sales team. |
|
The State & Capitol calendar
Big and small events around the State House, plus birthdays and celebratory notes.
👁 Keep watch for eye doctors under the dome on Wednesday. The Maine Optometric Association has called on members to introduce themselves to the new crop of lawmakers starting bright and early at 8 a.m.
👩🏫 Seven legislative committees will have orientations, including the appropriations committee. Most of them start at 1 p.m. See the full schedule.
🚗 Going to the State House today? The parking garage at the corner of Sewall and Capitol streets is open. It was closed last session due to structural concerns, but the state opened it this week after getting a second opinion and making simple repairs. However, the report recommended that the aging garage be replaced within five years. Read it.
🎂 Happy birthday to former Senate President Justin Alfond, D-Portland. I'm sure he misses being in Augusta for opening day.
Send birthdays or other notable events to mshepherd@bangordailynews.com. |
|
| 📝 The first bills are in at the State House. We are helping you keep watch with the Maine Politics Insider bill tracker. See the proposals that we find notable, along with the sponsors, analysis and similar bills from the past. |
|
On the move
Job postings and employment updates in government, policy and media.
🔵 Legislative staffs are mostly set for the new session. Megan Rochelo returns as chief of staff for Fecteau, bumping Bill Brown back to his longtime budget guru role for the House Democrats. Daughtry has installed Jenna Howard as strategy chief and Katie Adams as chief of staff.
🔴 Republicans have the same leaders in charge, but there are a few staff changes. Notably, Heather Priest is now splitting the role of chief of staff to Senate Republicans with longtime aide Craig Slavin.
🚜 Sen. Stacy Brenner, D-Scarborough, was announced last week as the new executive director of the Maine Farmland Trust.
⛪ Nick Adolphsen, a Republican operative who worked in former Gov. Paul LePage's administration and for the Foundation for Government Accountability, replaced Carroll Conley as executive director of the evangelical Christian Civic League of Maine at the new year.
📣 The progressive Maine Women's Lobby is hiring a communications coordinator.
Check the job boards run by the state, the Maine Municipal Association and the Maine Association of Nonprofits for more postings. If you apply for a job, let them know you found it here. |
|
| 🕵 We can't do this without you. We always need more sources to tell us what's going on in Augusta. Send intel and feedback on Maine Politics Insider to me at mshepherd@bangordailynews.com. |
|
|
|
