With Democrats down to a one-vote lead in the House and their standard-bearer – Gov. John Baldacci – receiving abysmal poll numbers, party leaders say it’s time to put a more positive spin on their accomplishments.
The plan is to play up legislative initiatives like Dirigo Health, gay rights and property tax relief through increased state aid to education, and blame the Republican Bush administration for many of the state’s ills.
That strategy is clearly at work in Augusta.
House Speaker John Richardson said earlier this month that he hoped “addressing the Bush administration’s failures will be my accomplishments,” in this legislative session.
Senate President Beth Edmonds took the same tack saying “taking care of everything that’s not being funded by the federal government sufficiently, particularly for people who rely on services now,” would be her goals this year.
On the Democratic hit list are ongoing problems with the Medicare Part D prescription drug program; home assistance for low-income residents, which the state is now subsidizing with $5 million in Maine revenues and $5 million from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez – an avowed Bush-basher; and, the closing of Brunswick Naval Air Station.
Gov. Baldacci last week even blamed the federal government for the rise in drug overdose deaths in Maine, which hit an all-time high of 178 in 2005, saying part of the problem was that Washington has cut drug enforcement funds.
The media strategy was hatched at a Democratic meeting in November with some consultants, including Pres. Bill Clinton’s former press secretary, Mike McCurry. Out of that brainstorming came overall goals, including:
• developing a message that works statewide and in each of the legislator’s districts
• speaking the same language and simplifying the message
• Creating a sense for people “that you are about them. That your values are their values.”
• Putting people first by focusing on things like paycheck issues and people versus politics.
Democrats also have put together message teams from the governor’s office, the House and Senate, and are suggesting a message calendar for legislators where one of six “sub-messages” would be pushed for one to two weeks at a time. The focus could be through press conferences, guest columns in the newspapers and by grouping like-bills relating to one of the sub-messages on the legislative calendar. Those six sub-messages include:
• jobs, jobs, jobs
• affordable health care, including Dirigo Health, which House leadership called “one of our strongest accomplishments despite coming under attack.”
• A stronger, more competitive Maine
• Opportunity through education
• Strengthening families and communities
• Protection of our natural heritage and environment
Blaming the federal government is supposed to get 25 percent of the Democrats’ attention under the plan, as is playing up successful initiatives. The other 50 percent is supposed to go toward articulating positive goals.
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