By Michael Shepherd - Oct. 20, 2022
Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up.

📷 Republican state Reps. Amy Arata of New Gloucester and her father, Richard Bradstreet of China, discuss legislation in the House chamber at the State House in Augusta on Jan. 17, 2019. (AP photo by Robert F. Bukaty)

Good morning from Augusta. There are 19 days until Election Day.

What we're watching today

Lawmakers could be in for a long court fight over access to sensitive child welfare files. A struggle between the Legislature's watchdog committee and the administration of Gov. Janet Mills came to a head on Wednesday when the panel voted to sue the state to comply with subpoena allowing lawmakers themselves — not just their staff — to view confidential records.

It is a key part of the committee's long-standing investigation of Maine's child welfare system. In fits and starts, it has been under scrutiny since 2018 after a spate of child deaths. This crop of lawmakers ramped it up last year after the summer deaths of four children, including 3-year-old Maddox Williams, whose mother was found guilty of murder this week.

The standoff between the branches has brewed since the summer, when the state denied a request from lawmakers to view child welfare files on those four cases. Attorney General Aaron Frey cited an interpretation of state law that allows the watchdog committee's staff to view confidential records while lawmakers themselves are not allowed to. Staff have been given documents.

This has long been the protocol for legislative probes and staff have been given access to the documents, but lawmakers have argued that they should be able to view them to help frame potential reforms. It culminated in a September subpoena from the Legislature's Government Oversight Committee that is now going to court after an 8-1 Wednesday vote.

With the courts backed up, a deputy attorney general told the committee that case could last into next year. Lawmakers will be asking the court system to expedite the case over the subpoena. At the same time, they will likely to try to change Maine law after the new Legislature is seated in January to allow lawmakers to see confidential documents as a matter of course, something that could win bipartisan approval.

Republicans have been most bullish on taking the Democratic governor's administration to court. The one who opposed doing it was outgoing Sen. Nate Libby, D-Lewiston, a co-chair of the panel who said that the problem would best be solved by the Legislature instead of burdening the court.

But Rep. Holly Stover, D-Boothbay, the other co-chair, voted for it and said it is important to push the issue before this group of lawmakers leaves Augusta and gives way to the next one. She said the committee should be pushing on multiple fronts, including by changing the law next year.

"That's what I think the urgency is about," she said.

The move comes at a sensitive political time, with Mills facing former Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican, in the Nov. 8 election. His state party sent out an alert on the dispute going to court on Thursday, saying the governor was "getting sued by members of both parties for refusing to turn over information on tragic child deaths."

It is "frustrating" that the committee's work has gone on this long, said Rep. Amy Arata of New Gloucester, the top House Republican on the panel. Williams' grandmother was in the committee room and Arata sensed that it has frustrated her as well. She said she had not seen her party's alert, but that she framed the dispute as one between branches and not about politics.

"There's show horses and there are work horses and I'm a work horse," Arata said.

🗞 The Daily Brief is made possible by Bangor Daily News subscribers. Support the work of our politics team and enjoy unlimited access to everything the BDN has to offer by subscribing here.

What we're reading

🔎 We fact-checked claims from the ad war in Maine's 2nd District on taxes and abortion.

⏩ Siding with the lobster industry, a federal judge agreed to expedite an appeal of new rules that aim to limit fishing to aid endangered whales.

👂 Bangor is considering a temporary "shelter village" for homeless residents, although it may be less likely than the Lewiston area to have one.

💼 Home sellers in Maine are profiting less. It is good news for buyers.

📱Want daily texts from me tipping you to political stories before they break?
Get Pocket Politics. It is free for 14 days and $3.99 per month if you like it.

News and notes

📷 Sen. Susan Collins speaks to an employee at the LP Houlton facility in New Limerick on Aug. 31, 2022, during a tour of the company's new SmartSide line of products. (Houlton Pioneer Times photo by Joseph Cyr)

💰 Maine's senior senator takes an appropriator's tour at a key time.

◉ Drowned out a bit in the din of the Nov. 8 election has been a key moment for Sen. Susan Collins, who has a lot riding on the outcome despite not being on the ballot. She is in line to be the top Republican on the appropriations panel and will also take her party's top spot on a defense subcommittee.

◉ If Republicans win a Senate majority, she will lead both panels. It is not assured, with FiveThirtyEight giving Democrats a 61 percent chance to keep control. Republican chances rely on candidates including Georgia's Herschel Walker, who is anti-abortion and has denied allegations that he paid for an abortion in 2009 for the mother of one of his children, getting past the finish.

◉ Collins' ascension to these spots was one of the main promises of her 2020 campaign with Democrat Sara Gideon. Maine has made out well in the return of congressional earmarks, something largely attributed to Collins. She will be in a strong ranking position if Republicans lose, but her fate is tied to her party.

◉ She has been doing Maine events this week previewing her role in that top slot. Collins told a Portland biomedical conference this week that she would continue to champion research funding. On Thursday, she will tour Piscataquis County projects supported by federal funding.

💵 Democrats double spending in the biggest legislative race in Maine history.

◉ The amount of money flowing into the Democratic effort to to defend Senate President Troy Jackson of Allagash in his race with Rep. Sue Bernard, R-Caribou, is staggering. In the last six days, outside groups aligned with Jackson have doubled their total spending to $679,000 in the toss-up race.

◉ Bernard was boosted by a $100,000 anti-Jackson campaign from a national Republican group this week. She has only gotten another $57,000 so far in outside support with Republicans swamped by national Democratic money.

◉ The $836,000 in outside spending has already smashed a Maine Senate record set in 2012. We are still counting in this one and $1 million is in reach.

🔑 Maine is one of two states where both legislative chambers are toss-ups.

◉ That is according to the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, which puts both the Senate and the House of Representatives in that column. Only seven chambers nationwide are in that category with control of states becoming foregone conclusions. Michigan is the other two-chamber, toss-up state.

◉ For the first time in a while, the pre-election chatter among observers is that the Maine House seems more in play than the Senate, something that lines up with another set of predictions from CNalysis leaving the House on a coin flip and tilting the upper chamber toward Democrats, who control both now.

◉ Redistricting is a factor. Republicans have structural advantages in the Senate and House now, according to a Princeton University analysis. The one on the House side is bigger. Democrats still outnumber them here, but districts are configured in a way that gives Republicans better chances than registration suggests. Look to this factor as a tiebreaker if things are close.

💰 Want to advertise in the Daily Brief? Write our sales team.

Copyright © 2022 bangordailynews, All rights reserved.
You're receiving this email because you opted in at our website, or because you subscribed to the Bangor Daily News.

Our mailing address is:

bangordailynews

1 Merchants Plz

Bangor, ME 04401-8302

Add us to your address book

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.