A centrist political party led by former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang is beginning to organize in Maine, with the goal of gaining ballot access here by the 2024 elections. New parties should always be greeted with healthy skepticism.
While polling shows growing frustration with the two-party system, society has generally divided into Democratic and Republican camps around issues and that is hard to crack. But Maine has been a little bit different in a few major ways.
The state has elected two independent governors in the modern era, and it got close to electing a third in Eliot Cutler in a 2010 race that would have rewritten history in major ways if he won. One, former Gov. Paul LePage may never have lived in the Blaine House. Two, Cutler’s March arrest on child pornography charges raise fair questions about whether he would have faced a massive scandal as a sitting governor.
Swing voters are disappearing across the country and waning in Maine, but it is still a major phenomenon here. Support from Democrats was a key factor in Sen. Susan Collins’ 2020 win and crossover support figures to be a major factor in the race for Maine’s 2nd District in 2022 as well, especially given the added factor of ranked-choice voting in that contest.
Independent movements are different from third parties. While the former has tended to thrive when major parties pick flawed nominees, the latter have tended to be on the fringes.
A Mainer, the late John Rensenbrink, co-founded both the national and state Green parties, something that was a gigantic task in the 1980s and 1990s. While the left-wing party has steadily gained voters in recent years, its effect has waned since it last fielded a statewide candidate in 2006.
But third parties are healthier in Maine than almost anywhere else. In 2020, the Green presidential candidate won 1 percent of votes here, more than in any other state. Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson pulled off a 5 percent finish on the Libertarian ticket in 2016 for his highest share in any state east of Oklahoma.
Greens have stayed alive in Maine, while the newly organized Libertarians recently won a federal court case in which a judge ordered the state to re-enroll members removed from the party by the secretary of state’s office. Ballot access laws will have to be reworked by 2024, something that has implications for how the Forward Party will organize here.
The Forward Party is trying to do something different by shooting down the middle of the electorate. A top organizer here is Rep. Owen Casas of Rockport, who was one of seven independents in the Legislature ahead of the 2018 election. There are only three now.
The two-party system continues apace in Maine and elsewhere. While Yang’s effort should not shake it up too much on the state and national levels, it will be interesting to see if it attracts well-known moderates in either party. History has shown us that if a third party gets going, Maine is relatively fertile ground.
