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Ethan: Do you agree Maine is no longer a purple state?
Phil: After the bruising Republicans took on Election Day, Republicans are definitely purple.
Ethan: I was referring to the “swing state” status that many ascribe to us. After this past election, I hereby declare Maine is a blue state.
Phil: Despite our disappointing night, I would say Maine is still purple as we do still have a Republican U.S. senator. And a relatively powerful one at that.
Ethan: One cranberry in a blueberry pie does not make it mixed-berry since I assume you will give me Angus King as a Democrat?
Phil: True blue, through and through.
Ethan: OK then, hear me out. Last week, Democrats not only maintained control of the Legislature, they expanded the largest majority they have held in the Senate since the Lyndon Johnson landslide of 1964 (which quickly reverted back to Republican rule two years later). And in the House we actually expanded our majority so that between the two bodies we now have more than 100 seats. A 2-1 advantage!
Phil: Republicans in the Legislature are irrelevant for the next two years unless they are wooed to deliver a two-thirds vote so that bills go into effect immediately versus 90 days after the Legislature adjourns, as state law stipulates.
Ethan: And remember, since you were first elected in 1992 BCE, the full Legislature has been in the hands of Republicans for exactly two years, and once this term is over, Democrats will have fully controlled both bodies for 23 years.
Phil: What you say about the Legislature may be true however, Maine’s 2nd Congressional District voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020, Paul LePage in 2010, 2014 and 2022, and the seat was held by the red team for four years.
Ethan: Anomalies. No matter how you spin it, CD 2 has been held by a Democrat since 1994, except for those four years. And, while Trump did take that district twice, he lost the state by tens of thousands of votes both times. In fact, a Republican presidential nominee has not won Maine since George Bush Sr. in 1988 when I was just starting at the University of Maine!!!
Phil: And how do you rationalize eight consecutive years of Paul LePage into your spin of Democratic domination?
Ethan: He legitimately turned the Blaine House red, no doubt. But Massachusetts has had a few Republican governors this century. Heck, they even had a Republican senator for a minute. Would you call that state anything but blue?
Phil: Ah, U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, those were heady days for the grand old party.
Ethan: Every blue state has pockets of red. California, New York, Oregon and even Washington, D.C., have Republican members of Congress and in their legislatures. But no one calls them purple. In Maine, for the past 30 years, Democrats have dominated from presidential elections and the state Legislature.
Phil: That is certainly a change from the 30 years prior when our Legislature was more split and we pretty constantly had a balance of Ds and Rs in the U.S. Congress.
Ethan: Not to mention we basically traded Democrat for Republican for Democrat and back again for the Blaine House: from Ed Muskie (D) to Robert Haskell (R) to Clinton Clausen (D) to John Reed (R) to Ken Curtis (D), etc.
Phil: And the 30 years before that was almost all Republicans, at all levels!
Ethan: And, rightly so, we were seen as a red state. Just as today, we should officially be called blue.
Phil: Perhaps, but by your 30-year marker, this blue state may likely start seeing red very soon