There is no shortage of experts telling us that this is the year of the angry voter.
But that’s not exactly what the people who meet the most voters are saying.
Candidates for local office and the Legislature have been out knocking on doors, handing out literature and hoping to engage voters in conversation. (If that doesn’t make them angry, what would?)
Instead of anger, they are seeing something else.
“Concerned, anxious, I would even say frightened,” said Ed Suslovic, the District 3 candidate for the Portland City Council.
Suslovic, who campaigned in the same district as a Democratic state representative in 2004, said six years later, the mood is much different.
Suslovic said that many of the constituents he’s talking to are struggling financially. Some are elderly people who are concerned about their investment income. Others are underemployed, working after a pay cut or a reduction in hours.
They are concerned about their property taxes and are not looking for government to expand services.
“They’re not saying, ‘Boy, people are hurting, we need to help them.’ They are saying, ‘I’m hurting.’ “
The recession may have officially ended in 2009, but for most Mainers it is still very much a fact of life and will be for some time to come.
Economists say that the nation should not expect to see robust growth until sometime next year, and even then, Maine can be expected to lag behind the rest of the country.
This is the second election cycle during this economic downturn, but it’s the first since the idea has sunk in that this is not just another recession, and the effects of this economic cycle have already changed the trajectory of many people’s lives.
Republican Ken Capron, who is running in a three-way race to represent House District 116, sees a big change in the voters’ mood from the last time he ran, two years ago.
This time around people are less likely to talk, and appear to be fed up with politics.
“A lot of people who opened their doors last time don’t want to hear the same old message this year. They want their problems solved, and they’re tired of the child’s play.”
This dissatisfaction is resonating with voters attitude to the top-of-the-ticket races, Capron said.
He’s talked with Republicans and Democrats who say they are unhappy with their party’s nominee and wish they had more choices. He sees some movement toward independent Shawn Moody, but more resignation. “They feel trapped,” he said.
Dick Woodbury, a former state representative who is running as an independent to represent Cumberland, Falmouth, Gray and Yarmouth in state Senate District 11, is also seeing dissatisfaction from the voters he runs into.
When he last ran four years ago, there was a constant complaint that taxes are too high.
Now the discontent is much broader.
“I think that there’s a pretty big sense in Maine that our government has done some things that have caused some serious economic problems here,” he said. “There is a general perception that government has been too large, too aggressive and high-spending and has contributed to the economic challenges that we are now facing.”
If these three candidates are right, this is not an electorate that is voting its hopes this time around, and it’s anyone’s guess how that will play out.
Will they lash out at an established political figure like Democratic gubernatorial nominee Libby Mitchell?
Will Republican Paul LePage offer the right dose of change, or will he look like too risky a choice for an electorate that’s nervous about the future?
Will one of the independents catch fire with less than two weeks to go?
Will voters desperate for jobs approve an Oxford County casino referendum after turning down an nearly identical question just last year?
We see the campaign signs, the debates and the ads on TV, but to the people on the ground, this election feels different from the ones in the recent past.
It may not be the year of the angry voter, but it looks like the year of the anxious voter, and none of us should be surprised if they act a little jumpy.
Greg Kesich is an editorial writer. He can be contacted at 791-6481 or at: gkesich@pressherald.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
