By Michael Shepherd - Sept. 9, 2022
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📷 Lobster fishermen were at work as the sun rose over the Atlantic Ocean on Sept. 8, 2022, off of Kennebunkport. (AP photo by Robert F. Bukaty)

Good morning from Augusta. There are 60 days until Election Day.

What we're watching today

Maine politicians race each other to defend lobstering, an issue making its way into campaigns. As the old idiom goes, motherhood and apple pie are two things just about Americans can agree on. In Maine politics, lobster would be on the corresponding short list.

That explains why politicians here are rushing to denounce the latest attack on the industry, a "red-listing" of lobster by a California aquarium that keeps a list of seafood that it says retailers should avoid. It is an extension of the battle between Maine lobstermen and federal regulators over regulations aimed at aiding the endangered right whale.

Both the industry and politicians here have been on the losing end of a legal battle over those regulations in recent months, leading to the seasonal closure of a large fishing ground last year and gear changes. While entanglements pose a threat to the species, no Maine lobster lines have been linked to one in roughly 20 years.

Apoplectic officials have issued a deluge of statements since then, capped by a broadside to the aquarium from Gov. Janet Mills and the congressional delegation on Friday accusing it of a "baseless smear" of the industry and demanding the red-listing be overturned after it prompted some retailers to pull lobster from menus. Mills and independent Sen. Angus King are holding a Friday news conference in Portland on the issue.

While Mills and the delegation have spoken with one voice this week and on the fight against federal regulations, there have been some important political differences on issues facing the industry.

The governor drew a protest in Augusta last year over support for offshore wind projects. While she and the Legislature later passed a ban on such projects in state waters and has underscored a desire to collaborate with fishermen, the lobster industry is worried about a research array that is moving forward. Former Gov. Paul LePage, Mills' Republican opponent, has opposed the project, saying it should be 40 miles or farther offshore.

Lobster issues are also featuring in the campaigns of Mills and Rep. Jared Golden of Maine's 2nd District. The two Democrats have been supported in the past by the League of Conservation Voters, one of the main environmental groups pushing for lobstering restrictions aimed at protecting the right whale. It spent nearly $360,000 to boost Golden in 2018.

Former Rep. Bruce Poliquin, Golden's Republican opponent then and now, has also flagged the incumbent's support of the Inflation Reduction Act, which sent $3 billion to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is enforcing lobstering restrictions. All of these claims have led LePage and Poliquin to accuse the incumbents of hypocrisy.

"Now more than ever our lobster industry needs a steady, proven, ally," LePage said this week.

All of this demands context. Lawmakers have sent billions to NOAA on a bipartisan basis, including in the recent infrastructure bill championed by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. Last year, the League of Conservation Voters said it would only support candidates that voted for President Joe Biden's Build Back Better plan, which Golden opposed. When LePage supported offshore oil drilling in 2018, Poliquin, lobstering groups and environmentalists opposed it, underscoring that there has long been tension about energy ideas.

In a Friday statement after a court ruling against lobstermen, Golden said the judge "set a dangerous precedent that could further open the floodgates for environmental groups seeking to continue to abuse the court system to put fishermen out of business."

That's another example of what you will see in the coming days, with politicians saying the same thing on lobstering issues. But it is not going to stop the campaign arguments given the circumstances facing the industry.

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News and notes

📷 Gov. Janet Mills speaks during a press conference at the conclusion of the National Governors Association meeting in Portland on July 15, 2022. (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett)

A new campaign ad from the governor highlights a historic bump in education funding.

— The new ad from Mills highlights the two-year budget passed in 2021, which lifted the state's share of basic K-12 education costs to a 55 percent threshold that had been enshrined in law but never met by Augusta.

— Democrats had long pushed for the state to meet the goal, but lawmakers were only able to do it after a wave of federal aid greased strong state surpluses in the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic. The budget was approved on a bipartisan basis.

— The threshold has long been pitched as a way to avoid property tax shifts. While it clearly keeps costs from percolating down to the local level, state and local tax burdens have risen in Maine and nationally in recent years due to higher incomes and property values, a Tax Foundation report found.

A Maine island whose name had a racial slur now has a "No Name" name.

— As part of an effort to cull place names that feature racist terms, 650 geographic features on federal lands were renamed by the Interior Department recently because they contained the word "squaw," an offensive term for a Native American woman.

— Only one Maine feature was on the list, the former White Squaw Island between Greenbush and Argyle on the Penobscot River. The amusing new name for the island is No Name Island.

— “I feel a deep obligation to use my platform to ensure that our public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming," Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who is the first Native American to lead a Cabinet agency, said in a statement.

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What we're reading

— A federal review of the Maine National Guard’s sexual assault and harassment policies did not investigate the complaints raised in a BDN investigation of a predatory culture that prompted the review.

— Omicron-specific boosters are available. Here's how to get one in Maine.

— Allagash Brewing, Maine’s largest craft brewer, is adding a tasting room at the former Scarborough Downs in a large expansion of its operations and a boon for the large and burgeoning new mixed-use development.

— The state's high court heard arguments Thursday over the intertidal property needed to build a controversial land-based salmon farm in Belfast, Maine Public reported.

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