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| 📷 Rep. Clinton Collamore, D-Waldoboro, speaks to reporters outside the Wiscasset courthouse on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023, alongside Richard Elliott, his attorney. (BDN photo by Michael Shepherd) |
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🗳️ Get ready for an interesting special election on the Midcoast.
◉ Just after he pleaded not guilty to charges linked to alleged signature fraud on Thursday, Rep. Clinton Collamore, D-Waldoboro, told reporters he will resign due to the case taking a toll on his health and an inability to be effective in Augusta. The House clerk had not received a resignation at that time.
◉ Assuming Collamore resigns, his district will be an interesting canvas for an odd-year special election. Republicans had a nearly 4-percentage-point edge in party registration over Democrats there as of the November election, but the freshman won by 300 votes with the endorsement of former Rep. Jeff Evangelos, I-Friendship, an ardent progressive who held the seat before.
◉ History does not favor Republicans. They have not won any legislative special election since 2017 and they have not won competitive districts in them since 2015. The massive Democratic money edge that has shaped recent general elections has had even more of an effect on these races, with the party putting in a major sum of $44,000 to hold a Portland-area seat early last year.
☔ Mills wants a disaster declaration for Maine's December windstorm.
◉ The governor asked President Joe Biden to declare a major disaster for Cumberland, Franklin, Knox, Oxford, Somerset, Waldo, and York counties following the damaging storm that led to a peak of 365,000 power outages statewide between the two major utilities.
◉ Such a move would unlock federal aid for those places. An initial state review has found nearly $3.3 million in public infrastructure damage from the storm, but the total is expected to rise as tallies continue in some areas. |
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What we're reading
🤦 Confusion still abounds over a property tax freeze program for seniors.
⚖️ An Aroostook man sued Maine's Catholic diocese, alleging a priest who is now dead abused him as a child in the 1990s.
📝 A report calls for better communication on sexual assault in the Maine National Guard.
🔜 Families brace for the end of pandemic-era SNAP benefits.
🤝 Maine's basketball tournament is a recruiting boon for college coaches. |
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Correction: Thursday's edition of the Daily Brief incorrectly said Mills is suspending a state spending cap in her two-year budget proposal. She is asking lawmakers to rebase that cap in a way that would allow the $10.3 billion proposal to adhere to the new limit. Read the administration's case for it. |
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