Gov. John Baldacci highlighted his re-election campaign themes – support for Dirigo Health, investments in education and an improved state economy – before the state Democratic Convention Saturday, criticizing the Bush administration rather than opponents closer to home.
Comparing his leadership in Maine with President George Bush’s in Washington, Baldacci said he succeeded at reducing the state deficit, while the national debt has skyrocketed, and reduced health care costs under Dirigo while the federal government introduced Medicare Part D – a drug coverage plan for seniors that has been criticized as too complex and expensive.
He also took credit for creating the Community College System, increasing aid to education and raising minimum teacher pay through legislation just approved this session, while blasting Bush for No Child Left Behind.
“We have reinvested in the classroom and now Maine leads the nation in classroom investment,” he said, while “No Child Left Behind equals no teacher left standing and no child moving forward.”
Baldacci said his administration has helped create good-paying jobs with the establishment of Pine Tree Zones and their tax incentives and has “moved aggressively to keep Maine jobs in Maine.”
“At the federal level they almost outsourced our major port operations to Dubai,” he said.
The Bush-bashing was part of the theme at the two-day convention held in Augusta where delegates debated a proposal to put impeaching the president into the party’s platform. Instead they compromised and called for a congressional investigation into the administration for its handling of the war in Iraq and surveillance of citizens back home.
Despite the focus on Washington, Baldacci faces a political battle here with a Republican, a Green and as many as three independent candidates on the ballot in November.
He also has a Democratic opponent – Chris Miller of Gray – who is not expected to draw much support in the June 13 primary, which also will decide the governor’s Republican opponent out of a field of three.
Miller got to make his pitch to the party’s most faithful on Saturday in a somewhat non-traditional presentation, including a skit depicting Maine in 2026 after food and petroleum riots have hit the rest of the nation.
Miller told the convention he wants to “relocalize” government, making Augusta less powerful and giving more control to towns and counties. He called for connecting Maine communities with rail versus building more highways and supporting local schools where children can walk to class, instead of creating “mega-districts.”
He also called for Mainers to start growing more of their own food, and, at the very least, purchasing Maine-grown products.
Reiterating a theme that more growth – of the economy, government and fuel consumption – would lead to a collapse of society, he said it was time get back to the basics of self reliance.
“Brunswick Naval Air Station needs to be redeveloped into a public community garden,” he said.
Miller, who said he was a lifelong Democrat with a degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, focused largely on global issues, but did take the governor to task for Dirigo Health insurance.
“I’ve got to give Gov. Baldacci credit for pushing Dirigo, but we’ve also got to realize the system’s not working,” he said, adding it was not covering the uninsured, as promised, but attracting people who already had insurance and wanted something more comprehensive.
He suggested a new, less expensive program where “maybe people will get less, but everybody will get something.”
“What were they thinking giving Dirigo to a for-profit corporation?” Miller asked, referring to the state’s choosing Anthem as its partner in administering the program.
Baldacci, who tried but failed to get the Legislature to end its partnership with Anthem and turn Dirigo into a self-insured system, touted the health insurance program in his speech.
“When I took office, Maine’s health care system faced enormous challenges. Many Mainers had no coverage, and insurance premiums were pricing small businesses out of the field,” he said. “Through Dirigo, we’re now insuring over 15,000 Mainers and improving cost, quality and access to health care.”
The numbers include about 10,000 people who have actually signed up for the DirigoChoice subsidized insurance program and more than 4,000 people who have been added to the Medicaid roles through an expansion of that program. The Medicaid expansion was approved in the same legislation that created DirigoChoice.
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