This week, Maine’s Democratic leaders released their proposal for a $99.2 millions “jobs bond package.”  The package would seek to put new construction projects into motion this summer.  “Without more work for our construction industry from engineers to the people moving the dirt, we are looking at a dire situation this summer,” said House Speaker Hannah Pingree (D-North Haven).  Democrats will have to gather support from House and Senate Republicans to forward the measure to a June vote.  Candidates for governor have provided us with their opinions on the bond proposal.  You may read their responses after the cut.  We will be adding more responses as we receive them. (more…)

An initiative to allow a casino in Oxford county will appear on the ballot, if not approved by the legislature.  State Matthew Dunlap announced today that he had verified petition signatures for the initiative.  Lewiston residents will have a chance to vote on a casino coming to Bates Mill No. 5 this June.  With the expansion of gambling once again on voters minds, Casinos No will be gearing up to fight these proposals.  In a press release this morning, Casinos No released statements of several gubernatorial candidates on casino expansion in Maine.  Most of the candidates say, “no thanks”. (more…)

Via the Kennebec Journal’s Susan Cover comes the word that Charles “Wick” Johnson III of Hallowell will not appeal a recent decision rejecting his challenge of the signatures on the people’s veto of the tax reform legislation. With that announcement, it is certain that a people’s veto of LD 1495 will be the first question on the referendum portion of the June primary ballot.

(more…)

On November 2nd, Republican Party Chair Charlie Webster filed a lawsuit against Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap.  Webster filed suit because Dunlap missed the deadline for verifying signatures for the People’s Veto of the recent Tax Reform Bill.  A little over a week after Webster filed the suit, Dunlap verified the signatures.  The legal action against Dunlap continued however.  Today we have received word that Superior Court Justice Donald Marden has reached a decision on Wesbter v. Dunlap.

Marden has ruled that Secretary Dunlap lost all authority to verify the signatures after he missed the thirty day deadline.  This delay immediately presumes the People’s Veto signatures are valid.  The People’s Veto must appear on the next statewide ballot, thought it already was slated to appear this June.  The ruling puts an end to the challenge put forth by Charles Johnson III of Kennebec Technologies in Augusta.  Since all signatures are presumed valid, the challenge is pointless.  Justice Marden stated that no further review on Secretary of State’s office will be necessary.  You may read the whole legal release here (PDF Warning)

You may also see Republican gubernatorial candidates’ opinions on the Tax Reform bill as well.

Despite a pending court challenge, it appears likely that LD 1495, the tax reform package, will be subject to a people’s veto. Since the Maine GOP supported these efforts, and the measure would appear on the June 2010 primary ballot, we decided to contact Republicans running for governor for their thoughts on the issue.

So far Matt Jacobson, Paul LePage, Peter Mills and Bruce Poliquin have responded. Their statements after the jump

(more…)

People always attack the referendum process in Maine as part of the campaign against whatever issues are on the ballot (or might be on the ballot). Columnists make pseudo-intellectual arguments against initiative and referenda itself in editorial pages across the state. It’s interesting, because there are never these sorts of criticisms of candidate elections – that, of course, would be undemocratic.

(more…)

As we reported earlier, Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap has verified the petition for a people’s veto of the LD 1945 tax reform bill. The time to challenge the verification is closing with no complaints yet. It looks as though the people’s veto will be on the June ballot. Maine Democrats, who authored the bill, and Maine Republicans have voiced their opinions on the people’s veto. Their opinions on the veto and the bill couldn’t be further apart. (more…)

Political commentators and analysts of all stripes, including us, have long opposed negative campaigning. Voters claim they don’t like them, and activists hate it when used against their candidates or causes. This is especially true in Maine, where we like to think that we are better than such things. Yet in recent elections, for both candidates and referendums, the side running the most negative ads has often won. This trend held true this year, as the results of Questions One through Four can be explained (at least in part) by the effectiveness of negative advertising.

(more…)

The coalition Still Fed Up With Taxes, formed to fight the tax reform legislation passed on a party-line vote in the House and an almost straight party-line vote in the Senate, has had their people’s veto signatures verified. Opposition groups will now have five days to examine the signatures and file legal challenges if they so desire.

(more…)

Both of the tax issues on the ballot were overwhelmingly rejected last night, as Mainers voted to preserve the status quo in this area. The initiative to cut the excise tax was overwhelmingly defeated by about a 74%-26% margin. The Taxpayers Bill of Rights was closer, but still failed by about a 60%-40% margin – not even as close as 2006. The surprise wasn’t that these initiatives failed (in TABOR’s case for the second time) but that they failed by such a large margin.

(more…)