How to succeed in politics without really trying
What does it take to end a political career in Maine?
A sex scandal? Not if you’re Attorney General Aaron Frey. Last month, he was chosen by the Legislature to serve another two-year term, in spite of admitting to having an inappropriate affair with a woman who worked for him. Frey prevailed over two other qualified candidates, a Democrat and a Republican, neither of whom had ever been implicated in screwing the staff.
How about being a bumbling incompetent? Not if you’re State Auditor Matthew Dunlap. In his previous job as secretary of state, Dunlap oversaw a 2014 election recount decided in favor of the wrong state Senate candidate; he failed to verify petition signatures for a 2009 People’s Veto referendum by the legal deadline, allowing a referendum question to qualify for the ballot without proper oversight; and he spent a significant amount of his time in office also working for a guns-right group and serving on its board of directors. When he was term-limited out of the secretary’s position in 2020, he got his former colleagues in the Legislature to choose him as auditor, even though he admitted he was “utterly unqualified” for the job. Dunlap was forced to resign in 2021 after failing to get certified as any kind of auditor. After finally figuring out enough right answers to get licensed, Dunlap convinced his political cronies to strong-arm the guy who took his place (an actual auditor) into quitting in 2022, whereupon he was chosen to fill the vacancy.
Is it OK to hold a constitutional office while you’re waiting around for voters to forget what an uninspired candidate for elected office you used to be, just so you get a chance to run another uninspired campaign? Sure it is, if you’re Shenna Bellows, recently chosen by the Democratic majority in the Legislature to serve two more years as secretary of state. Bellows ran for the U.S. Senate in 2014 and was beaten in a landslide by Republican incumbent Susan Collins, losing in every single county in the state, a feat hardly any other Democrat in the post-Ed Muskie era had managed to achieve. Naturally, lots of Dems think she’d be a swell candidate for governor in 2026, and the secretary’s office will make a fine campaign headquarters.
Is being a nonentity an impediment to landing a cushy job as a constitutional officer? Not for state Rep. Joe Perry of Bangor. Perry represented a solidly blue district where getting elected required no extraordinary political skills as long as you had a D after your name. He owns a convenience store, which might mean he possesses a modicum of business sense and no ethical qualms about selling a wide range of unhealthy products. Last legislative session, he co-chaired the Taxation Committee, which indicates some minimal knowledge of taxes. He was just chosen to be the state’s new treasurer, a job that requires hardly any political expertise, next-to-no guilt about selling tobacco products and ultra-processed food, and whose only involvement with taxes will be depositing the cash in investment accounts. Perry replaced Henry Beck, who attracted so little notice during his six years in the job that he could have been in the Witness Protection Program.
Maine is the only state that fills all these positions by a vote of the Legislature. In most places, those holding these offices are either chosen in elections or by gubernatorial appointment. Unfortunately, there’s nothing in those methods that guarantees a higher quality of officeholder, and they sometimes produce results that make Maine seem fortunate by comparison. (South Dakota had an attorney general with a long history of driving infractions who killed a pedestrian; Indiana’s AG was temporarily disbarred; Alaska’s top lawyer had to resign after sending suggestive texts to a subordinate.)
Who’s to blame for the twerps filling these high-ranking offices? Governors, in some states; voters in others. And the news media in all of them, including Maine, for failing to thoroughly investigate these bozos before they boarded the bus.
If choosing an attorney general in this state were handled in the way we select judges, candidates would be vetted by the governor before being nominated, then subjected to a public hearing and a vote by the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee. Finally, the state Senate would decide whether to uphold or reject the committee’s recommendation.
Similarly, nominees for secretary, treasurer and auditor (who’s not technically a constitutional officer; that position was created by statute) could be run through that wringer to see what sort of dirty laundry drips out.
Might an occasional doofus still slip through? Possibly, but it would be far less likely than under the present method of handing out political favors to whatever hack is handy.
It’s past time to start taking these offices seriously by reforming the selection process and raising public awareness of the nominees’ faults to make sure some political careers end before these craven weasels do more damage.
Audit my arguments, tax my patience, or treasure your complaints by e-mailing aldiamon@herniahill.net.
