By Michael Shepherd with Billy Kobin - July 20, 2023
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The governor has not changed much since winning her second term. Political punditry is littered with the idea that an executive who wins a second and final term can throw caution to the wind and make sweeping moves that they would not have considered earlier in their tenure.

That is mostly not happening with Gov. Janet Mills. The Democrat has attracted criticism from Republicans for going back on campaign promises by signing off on a law allowing abortions after a post-viability cutoff and a paid leave program that includes a payroll tax, but old divides with her party within.

We saw that on Wednesday, when the governor handed down two more vetoes on a citizen-initiated attempt to ban foreign electioneering and another bill to apply Maine's minimum wage to farmworkers. She had vetoed items similar to both of these things before, so the moves were not terribly surprising.

The reactions were. House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, a progressive who has long divided with Mills on issues including tribal sovereignty, said the governor was "using the power of her office to maintain inequality amongst Mainers" on the farmworker veto. The AFL-CIO said it "carries on the historical stain and stench of exploitation and racial exclusion."

Labor issues have always been a bugaboo between Mills and other Democrats. her veto pen hammered bills in 2021 on that subject and others from Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, who has also been among Mills' critics on that side of the aisle since her tribal-rights veto last month.

This does not mean Republicans are happy with the governor. The anti-abortion right was apoplectic over the abortion bill when the idea was unveiled in January, and Democrats ended up only barely passing it in the House due to holdouts in their ranks.

Mills also ended up going with legislative Democrats on paid leave, something that business groups oppose due to the new tax. She defended the program by saying it will help Mainers and that the plan negotiated by the Legislature was better than a rival effort for progressives, but she will be tied to the program good or bad going forward.

While Mills is likely entering her final political act, she is 75 years old and has spent the better part of her adult life in government. In her second term, she is still riding what constitutes the political middle in a left-tilted Augusta. When she digs in on something, she is typically unswayed.

This was evidenced by her retort at the abortion bill signing on Wednesday to Republicans who call the measure "extreme."

“What is extreme is forcing a woman to give birth to a child who will immediately die,” Mills said.