By Michael Shepherd - Jan. 9, 2022 Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up.
📷 Republicans in the Maine House of Representatives, including Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham of Winter Harbor (bottom), look up to see how their colleagues voted on a heating assistance package on Wednesday at the State House in Augusta. (AP photo by Robert F. Bukaty)
Good morning from Augusta. The Legislature is back in session Tuesday.
What we're watching today
Social issues, voting and vaccines are the topics of early Republican bills in Augusta. The 2022 election put Democrats in full control of Augusta for the third consecutive legislative term. Gov. Janet Mills' victory over former Gov. Paul LePage, the longtime Republican standard-bearer, put the minority party in the political wilderness again.
So far, we have only seen or heard about only a sliver of the 2,000 bills that lawmakers are expected to submit during the 2023 legislative session. Titles and text have been released on 135 of them so far. Among them are Republican ideas old and new, with some of them taking precedent on the right during the COVID-19 pandemic even if they were proposed before.
A good example of that is a measure from Sen. James Libby, R-Standish, which would eliminate public schools from an exception to Maine's prohibition on the dissemination of obscene material to minors. Exemptions for libraries and private schools would remain. It comes on the heels of a national conservative movement against books described as sexually explicit but often discuss LGBTQ and racial issues.
This bill is nothing new. It was also proposed in 2019, when the American Civil Liberties Union chapter here described it as a censorship measure that would chill discussion of arts and literature. At that time, the sponsor billed it as a measure to protect children from being confused or re-traumatized. Despite an amendment proposal, it was rejected unanimously by a committee.
Other old ideas are back on the table as well. Republican senators are seeking to remove the 100-megawatt cap on hydropower projects considered renewable by the state, a goal of LePage during his time in office. Sen. Matt Pouliot, R-Augusta, has a voter ID proposal, joining a fraught debate over a policy idea that a study from last year found does not provide the benefits that Republicans suggest nor the drawbacks that Democrats argue about.
Vaccines are also a priority for certain members. Rep. Gary Drinkwater, R-Milford, wants to undo a 2019 law by restoring religious and philosophical exemptions to vaccine requirements in schools and certain health care settings. That law easily survived a people's veto during the presidential primaries of 2020, just before the first documented COVID-19 cases reached Maine.
While history shows us that Republicans stand little chance to advance any of these priorities, these early proposals show the political fights ahead with Democrats. These issues will be important in future campaigns as the minority party tries to map a course back to a majority. It is going to take some doing.
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News and notes
📷 In a screenshot from a video shared on social media by a Ukrainian official, U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, shakes hands with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Friday, Jan. 6, 2023. U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island, is behind them.
🆙 A Maine senator discussed his weekend trip to Ukraine with reporters.
◉ Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, was back stateside on Saturday night after a two-day trip to Kyiv in which he met with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. (Yes, King is wearing a sweatshirt depicting his personal hero, the legendary Civil War Gen. Joshua Chamberlain of Maine.)
◉ King was speaking with Maine reporters on a 10 a.m. virtual news conference about the trip.
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What we're reading
⚫ After his daughter died of an overdose, a Maine lawmaker is prioritizing a ream of bills aimed at fighting the opioid crisis.
