These days, all of our
attention is directed at Washington, DC, as if that’s where the most important
things happen. Watch the national networks – what’s happening in state
government is rarely mentioned. States only count if their polls can tell us
about the next national election. The political stalemate in Congress means
that very little is being legislated. Our lives are more strongly influenced by
state governments, which might ban or support the right to abortion, try to
suppress or encourage voting, raise or lower taxes.
To understand the state of
American politics, let’s look at my former home, Maine. Its recent political
shifts are not typical, if any state is typical, but they are revealing about
what separates Republicans and Democrats at the beginning of 2020.
In 2018, the Democratic wave
washed over Maine. Attorney General Janet Mills ended Republican occupation of
the Governor’s mansion, by winning 51% in a 3-way race. The State Senate, which had been narrowly controlled
by Republicans 18-17, went Democratic 21-14. Democrats had controlled the Maine House of
Representatives since 2012. They increased their majority from 73 to 89 seats. This was part of a national trend in favor of
Democrats, who held 42.6% of the 6073 state legislative seats up for election
across the country, and won 47.3% in 2018.
My source for Maine’s
legislative politics last year is one-sided: the Legislative Scorecard produced
by the Maine People’s Alliance, a very liberal advocacy group. On 13 bills that the
MPA thought significant, we can see what each party is trying to accomplish and
how they vote.
The MPA encouraged passage of
bills that: gave teachers the right to negotiate over working conditions in
their contracts; increased for renters the minimum advance notice of rent
increases from 45 days to 75 days; gave workers at Maine businesses one hour of
sick time for every 40 hours of paid work; lowered the threshold for the
state’s estate tax, which had been raised recently by a Republican
administration; established a Permanent Commission on the Status of Racial and
Ethnic Populations in Maine; guaranteed insurance coverage of abortion care for
Maine plans; created two overdose prevention sites, where addicts could use
drugs in a safe environment and get treatment; made labor arbitration binding
on issues of wages, benefits, and retirement; established a Green New Deal task
force to create a plan to reach 80% reliance on renewable electricity by 2040;
restored access to welfare services for low-income legal immigrants; directed
the Public Utilities Commission to consider creating a consumer-owned public
utility; changed the name of Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day. I have
always been a big supporter of the MPA, which is why they keep sending me their
newsletter.
The MPA-supported bills
protected reproductive rights, supported wage workers and renters, tried to
deal with the drug crisis, moved forward on the environment, and promoted
racial equality. The MPA opposed an amendment to the Maine Constitution that
would have made it more difficult to put a citizen’s initiative on the ballot
by requiring more signatures. Thousands of bills were submitted during this
legislative session, but these few illustrate the politics of each party.
The voting demonstrates the
lack of a middle in Maine, or more precisely, the total rejection by
Republicans of the Democratic agenda. On 10 bills, the 57 Republicans in the
House provided only 12 positive votes. Another way to put that is that 45
Republicans voted for none of these bills, and 12 voted for one, mostly for the
bill mandating sick leave. The Republican votes in the Senate were similar,
with 12 of 14 Republicans voting for none of the bills.
Democrats provided a more
diverse spectrum of voting. Of 89 Democrats in the House, 29 voted for all 10
bills, 27 voted against one or two, 14 voted against 3 or 4, and 9 voted
against 5 or more. The bill to create “overdose centers” was the least popular,
with 40 Democratic “no” votes, and it did not go any further. Nearly one-third
of Democrats supported the Constitutional amendment to require more signatures,
but that needed a 2/3 majority to pass and failed. Enough Democrats voted
against lowering the estate tax threshold that it failed. The bill to increase
the advance notice of rent increases passed by slim majorities, with about
one-quarter of Democrats voting against, and was vetoed by the Governor. The
Governor also vetoed the requirement for labor arbitration, which had 12
Democratic “no” votes in the House.
Big Democratic majorities and
approval by the Governor were achieved by the bills to change the name of
Columbus Day, to provide paid leave to workers, to establish a Commission on
minorities, to protect reproductive rights, to create a Maine Green New Deal,
and to consider a consumer-owned public utility.
That’s a lot of details, but
it helps to delineate the nature of party voting at the state level. Some
moderate, or even conservative Democrats exist, and they may vote more with
Republicans than with their own party. The liberal agenda is to provide workers
with more rights and pay, to continue to fight racial discrimination, to take
small steps to counteract climate change.
Republicans vote as a bloc
against proposals which give workers more rights against their employers, which
deal with the environment, which acknowledge that discrimination continues to
exist, or which accepts the reality of abortions.
Democratic control of the
Maine legislature and Governor’s office, sometimes called a “trifecta” by those
discussing party control of state government, is only one year old, and is
moving slowly to implement a liberal agenda. The Democratic votes against
getting more very wealthy Mainers to pay the estate tax show a hesitancy to
reverse Republican tax cuts for the wealthy, despite polls showing that most
Mainers feel that the wealthy pay less than their fair share. Governor Mills
was cautious about anything that was opposed by the Maine Chamber of Commerce,
notably on tax and budget issues.
We might expect a more
vigorous agenda, if Democrats keep their majorities in the 2020 elections, and
win at the national level. We can expect unified rejection of all progressive
legislation by Republicans.
Steve Hochstadt
Jacksonville IL
January 7, 2020
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