By Michael Shepherd - May 26, 2022 Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up.
Good morning from Augusta. There are 19 days until Maine's June primaries.
What we're watching today
A megadonor-led movement to elect progressive prosecutors is beginning to target a Maine primary. Maine has a mostly low-key raft of primaries on June 14, but one that could get interesting in the next two weeks or so is for the Democratic nomination for top prosecutor in the Portland area between District Attorney Jonathan Sahrbeck and his challenger, Jackie Sartoris, who works as a prosecutor in Kennebec County. There are no other candidates in the race, leaving the primary winner unopposed in November.
That could be changing. A group funded by Democratic megadonor George Soros began running Facebook ads on Wednesday that are more notable for their content than their cost of only a few hundred dollars at most. It paid for one biographical ad for Sartoris and one attack ad on Sahrbeck, hitting him for prosecuting a sex trafficking victim as an assistant district attorney in 2018. (The case ended with a filing that allowed her to have no criminal record.)
It's a tiny part of a huge Soros-backed effort in recent years to elect progressive prosecutors with aggressive agenda, including district attorney Larry Krasner of Philadelphia. It has turned Soros into more of a bogeyman in Republican circles, with a conservative group calling him an "archvillain" in a report flagging two dozen district attorneys who were helped by his organizations.
Sartoris does not line up neatly with all of them. She has four years of experience as a prosecutor in Augusta and endorsements from progressives including Rep. Victoria Morales, D-South Portland, who sponsored an unsuccessful bill this year to limit the reasons police can use stop a vehicle. She supports prioritizing mental health and substance use disorder treatment and more transparency around how cases are charged, but she told a defense attorney she is not running to be "dismissal fairy."
The political problems for Sahrbeck go back to how he was elected in 2018. He was a longtime assistant under former Republican district attorney Stephanie Anderson, winning as an unopposed independent only after a Democrat and Republican dropped out. He has said he became a Democrat ahead of this race because he aligned with the agendas of other district attorneys here and is running under the slogan "progressive and practical."
The Soros-backed group in Maine has not disclosed its spending yet, which indicates it has not spent much money at all. But the potency of its message against Sahrbeck is worth watching closely in what could be a low-turnout primary. It may not cost much to push the challenger over the top.
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What we're reading
— Two higher education researchers could not find a similar example nationally of an administrator withdrawing from a job and being paid. That is happening in Maine after a bungled search for the University of Maine at Augusta's next president. Gov. Janet Mills also declined to say on Wednesday if she has confidence in embattled university system Chancellor Dannel Malloy.
— Maine's congressional delegation is taking three different tacks in discussing gun policy after the Texas school shooting. Sen. Susan Collins wants to pass a national version of Maine's "yellow flag" law. Sen. Angus King and Rep. Chellie Pingree are redoubling calls for stricter gun control law. Rep. Jared Golden, the Democrat facing a difficult reelection race in the 2nd District who has bucked his party on gun control, did not call for any specific policies.
— King is backing President Joe Biden's latest pick to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms after sinking the last nomineee.
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News and notes
— The U.S. House of Representatives will vote on a bill in June that would nationalize "red flag" laws. Pingree has co-sponsored the measure, which is virtually assured to pass in the lower chamber a steep hurdle in the 60-vote Senate filibuster. Golden has not been on the bill in the past.
— The environment in Congress on gun laws is not fundamentally changing, although support for stricter gun laws bumped up from 60 percent to 65 percent in national polling by Morning Consult between the Buffalo and Texas shootings. Public opinion in Maine has always been complicated on the issue, with gun-control groups touting positive polling for them on restrictions but voters turning back a large background check expansion in 2016.
— Mills is back on the road today for an early afternoon tour of downtown Kennebunk.
Mills chats with Patti Burnett, the owner of Dom's Barber Shop, during an informal walking tour of downtown Hallowell on Wednesday. (AP photo by Robert F. Bukaty)
đź“·Â Â Lead photo:Â The Cumberland County courthouse is pictured on May 16, 2018. (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett)
