Being quick on your feet is a good thing, especially in politics.
In addition to answering numerous serious questions about jobs, health care and education, the gubernatorial candidates have addressed their fair share of “lightning round” questions that give them a chance to show a less scripted, more human side.
At the Eggs & Issues forum in Portland on Wednesday, the master of the lightning round, WGME-TV’s Gregg Lagerquist, peppered them with quite a variety of stuff.
Will medical marijuana hurt Maine?
All five said no.
Would you ever get a prescription for it?
“My wife won’t give it to me,” said independent Eliot Cutler, referring to Dr. Melanie Stewart Cutler, a psychiatrist.
Democrat Libby Mitchell: “Only if I need one.”
Have you ever camped at a Maine state park?
Mitchell said no. All the rest said yes.
Should the governor have line-item veto power?
Cutler: “Absolutely yes.”
Republican Paul LePage: “A good governor doesn’t need it, but a weak governor may have to have it.”
Mitchell: “No. I don’t need it.”
Independent Shawn Moody and independent Kevin Scott both said yes.
Would you raise the sales tax to balance the budget?
Cutler: “The first thing we have to do is get the spending under control,” he said. “We have to squeeze the living bejesus out of (the budget).”
LePage: “Prioritize, then look at it.”
Mitchell: “No, for now, and I want to know what ‘bejesus’ means.”
Cutler: “Libby, it’s an old Maine expression.”
Mitchell: “Well, you’ve squeezed the bejesus out of it already.”
At a forum later in the week, the candidates were asked about their favorite fair food.
LePage: “Favorite fair food? I don’t have any.”
Moody: “Fried dough.”
Scott: “Fresh-cut potato chips.”
Cutler: “I love fried dough with maple syrup and cinnamon.”
Mitchell: “Fried dough and blooming onions.”
CUTLER BACKERS FORM PAC
A group of Republicans, Democrats and independents have joined together to form a political action committee so they can raise and spend money on behalf of Cutler.
The Campaign for Maine will run ads to tell voters how Cutler differs from Mitchell and LePage, according to a news release.
Members of the PAC include Tony Buxton and Jon Doyle, lawyers and State House lobbyists; Jean Gulliver, former chairwoman of the Maine Board of Education; and Kay Rand, a public affairs consultant and former chief of staff for independent Gov. Angus King.
Speaking of PACs, reports are due to the ethics commission Tuesday, so we’ll get a sense of how much outside groups are spending on the race.
LOBSTERMEN CLOSE THEIR DOORS
The Maine Lobstermen’s Association and two other local lobster groups refused to let any press (or trackers) into a meeting last week in Searsport with the five gubernatorial candidates who will be on the ballot.
The reason?
Patrice McCarron, executive director of the association, said the group wanted to have an intimate meeting with just board members and the candidates.
“We just wanted to have a very honest discussion,” she said. “Our members’ livelihoods depend on the administration and who is commissioner of the Department of Marine Resources.” As not-for-profits, the groups won’t be making any endorsements, she said.
If you want to read about what the candidates said at the meeting, the October newsletter of the association is posted online at www.mainelobstermen.org.
JUST AN AGRICULTURAL FYI
Liberal blogs heated up last week with a video clip of LePage making an emphatic claim during a Republican primary forum earlier this year.
“I don’t know if you know this, but the state of Maine is the only state in the United States of America that charges sales tax on bull semen,” he said. “Bull semen. The only state in the United States of America.”
Well, according to Mike Allen, director of Maine Revenue Services, Maine hasn’t charged sales tax on bull semen since it was exempted in 2005.
Now you know.
I SAW THE SIGN (OR NOT)
During a call-in radio show on the Maine Public Broadcasting Network on Friday, Mitchell explained why she doesn’t have more yard signs across the state.
“I’m a Clean Election candidate, and I have a budget I have to stick to,” she said. “I have no more money to spend on signs. You should see my grandchildren painting signs.”
She also encouraged supporters to be creative and make their own.
CONGRESSIONAL RACE HEATS UP
Two years ago, when Dean Scontras was trying to win his party’s nomination in Maine’s 1st District, he gave a speech at the Republican state convention outlining what he called his conservative candidacy.
“I will not compromise,” he said then. “I will not moderate.”
Scontras, defeated in the 2008 Republican Party primary by Charlie Summers of Scarborough, is now running against incumbent U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, and appears to have learned a lesson on staking out strong social stances.
Twice in a recent call-in program on Maine Public Radio, he dodged questions about his view on gay marriage.
“I am going to the United States Congress, and there’s very little I can do to have any effect on the social issues,” Scontras told a caller from Falmouth. “So I think from a practicality and pragmatic perspective, my personal feelings aside, what I will do in the United States Congress is solely focus on debts, deficits and job creation, and not on those other issues.”
Scontras did say he supports ending the military’s policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Scontras also painted himself as independent of national party influence, declaring that he has “been one of the only Republican candidates in the country to reject national political money,” he said. “I don’t want to sell my political soul.”
Later, campaign spokesman Martin Sheehan clarified the remarks. He said Scontras has not torn up any RNC checks, but that he visited Washington after the primary this spring to meet with party bigwigs. Sheehan said the meeting did not go particularly well.
“If he had pursued it and danced to their tune, my guess is they would have given (financial support) to him,” Sheehan said. “But he’s got lots of support from here in Maine. He doesn’t want Washington money or anybody else’s money with strings attached.”
Pingree is scheduled to appear on the same call-in program Tuesday after engaging in her first public debate with Scontras that same morning on WGAN radio.
MITCHELL PULLS AD?
The LePage campaign sent a news release Friday indicating that Mitchell had pulled an ad critical of LePage’s educational polices.
On Thursday, Republican lawmakers and others held a news conference to refute some of the claims made in the Mitchell ad.
In the release, the LePage campaign said it applauded the news that the “Mitchell campaign has pulled its false education attack ad off the Maine airwaves.”
Not so, says Mitchell spokesman David Loughran. The ad has stopped running, but it’s because the campaign changed to a new series of ads earlier in the week.
“We switched to a new ad three days before their press conference,” he said. “We fully stand by the ad.”
McCABE MAKES FOREST GRADE
Rep. Jeff McCabe, D-Skowhegan, has been rated a “very strong” advocate for the state’s forest products industry.
The Maine Forest Legacy Political Action Committee awarded the rating for McCabe’s support for loggers, truckers, private landowners, manufacturing facilities and foresters. McCabe faces Republican Brian David Hale of Skowhegan in the race for the House District 85 seat.
PIOTTI EARNS PERFECT SCORE
House Majority Leader John Piotti, D-Unity, received a score of 100 percent from the Maine League of Conservation Voters.
The group gave him the high rating for his votes on environmental bills and clean energy.
Piotti is running for the Senate District 23 seat against fellow House member Rep. Michael Thibodeau, R-Winterport.
Staff Writer Glenn Jordan, Morning Sentinel Staff Writer Scott Monroe and MaineToday Media State House Writer Rebekah Metzler contributed to this column.
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