The Legislature’s Ugly Ratings
How can you safely distinguish the weirdos from the freaks without contracting whatever is wrong with them?
Or in more prosaic terms, how do you sort the MAGA extremists from the Antifa nutcases without catching something viral?
Fortunately, there’s a useful (and sanitary) tool for making these choices if you’re trying to assess the job done by members of the Maine Legislature. Every year, the Maine People’s Alliance, as liberal an assemblage of wannabes and never-weres as any democratic-socialist cell, collates a bunch of votes in the state House of Representatives and Senate on a selection of hot-button issues. This provides an easily understood “scorecard” on our elected leaders in Augusta.
Sure, the MPA is a collection of unapologetic left-wingers, but that means their opinions on politicians are easily interpreted, so voters of any persuasion can grasp them. The MPA survey is not like those assessments that pretend to be unbiased but clearly aren’t, or that are so narrowly focused on single issues as to be useless for a wider understanding of how a legislator adhered to or deviated from their respective party’s orthodoxy (for instance, knowing how somebody voted on gun control doesn’t reveal anything about how they voted on abortion). The overtly biased but broadly based surveys like the MPA’s are the only scorecards from which you can learn something useful, because they display their prejudices right out front on a wide range of issues.
That’s the good news. The bad news is the results aren’t pretty.
Sadly for those naive souls who’d like to believe most of our elected officials are not hardcore, narrow-minded partisans, there’s overwhelming evidence that they are. Working across the aisle on issues such as education, energy, crime or affordability is a rarity, a political endangered species.
In the 151-member House, more than two-thirds of the representatives are rigid hardasses. This contingent either voted the liberal line (agreed with the MPA’s position) exclusively or went straight conservative (opposed the MPA) 100 percent of the time. Forty-six Democrats and one independent had perfect positive scores. Fifty-four Republican representatives got dead zeros. Another 30 members of both parties had scores of 90 percent or more one way or the other.
That leaves a House caucus composed of moderates containing exactly 20 legislators who dared to cross party lines at least a few times this past session. The most conservative Democrat, Rep. Tiffany Roberts of South Berwick, still voted the MPA line nearly 73 percent of the time. GOP rebels who backed MPA on at least 20 percent of these issues numbered just four, topped by former Green Independent Rep. John Eder of Waterboro at 28.6 percent.
In the 35-member Senate, the number of unwavering partisans was smaller, with just three ultra-lefties and one diehard righty. But that’s a bit deceiving. An additional 13 Democrats voted the MPA line nine out of every 10 times, while 10 Republicans opposed the alliance on 90 percent or more of all roll-call votes.
Overall, 27 senators could be classified as hardliner zombies, while there were just eight lonely middle-of-the-roaders. Of those, at least two, Democrat Joe Baldacci of Bangor and independent Rick Bennett of Oxford, probably won’t be back next year because they ran for higher offices.
These moderates could caucus in a phone booth if such a thing still existed. Maybe an upright coffin would serve.
If you were wondering why there’s so much gridlock at the State House and so little room for compromise, now you’ve got a clue. Compromise, like decent screwball comedy films, is a lost art.
What were some of the bills the MPA chose to determine its rankings?
Rent control for mobile home parks got enacted. A moratorium on data centers won passage, but was vetoed by the governor. A measure to exclude data centers from corporate tax breaks was successful. Legislation calling for a study of public financing of energy supplies failed. Another of those timid efforts to give the Wabanaki tribes more sovereignty was approved. A statewide rental registry of landlords was defeated. An attempt to repeal paid family and sick leave was shot down, as was a bill to get rid of the 72-hour waiting period before someone could buy a gun. Increased pay for day care workers and higher subsidies for day care centers both crashed and burned. A move to offset federal health care cuts went nowhere. And restrictions on ICE activities at schools, libraries and medical offices survived.
The MPA supported the majority of those bills, with the exception of repealing paid sick leave and getting rid of the 72-hour waiting period.
To see how your legislators scored, go to mainepeoplesalliance.org, press the link for “Issues” on the draw-down menu and then hit “Legislative Scorecard.”
No matter what comes up, be prepared to be disappointed.
Al Diamon is mostly rated as annoying, although some special interests classify him as a shithead. He also writes a monthly column for The Maine Sportsman and a diatribe each Wednesday for the Bangor Daily News’ e-mail newsletter Maine Politics Insider. He can be e-mailed at aldiamon@herniahill.net.
