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**OCTOBER 31, 2022**
Clash of the Titans in Maine
BY GABRIELLE GURLEY
Janet Mills and Paul LePage are no strangers to political acrimony in a
race that is as much about inflation as it is abortion.
ROBERT F. BUKATY/AP PHOTO
Democratic Gov. Janet Mills and Republican Paul LePage shake hands
following a debate, October 4, 2022, at the Franco Center in Lewiston,
Maine.
BRUNSWICK, MAINE - On a cloudy and mild Sunday morning, Democratic
Gov. Janet Mills stood in front of a gazebo in a small park off Maine
Street, where traffic swelled by the last of the weekend leaf peepers
sped by. Brunswick is a solid-blue Mid-Coast town, home to Bowdoin
College and about 30 minutes north of Portland, Maine's largest city.
Mills came to town to headline the Bowdoin Democrats' canvassing
kickoff, press the flesh, and, yes, take pictures with pouting toddlers.
Before the small group of students and residents left to knock on doors
for the governor and state legislative candidates, they listened to
Mills tick off how she revived the state health care system after her
Republican predecessor Paul LePage left office. She implemented Medicaid
expansion by executive order, resuscitated the Maine Center for Disease
Control, and rehired dozens of public-health nurses.
"Who doesn't like public-health nurses?" she wanted to know. "Thank
God we had that first year ..." Mills got that much out before a
slow-moving convoy of bikers roared up and interrupted her flow. The
governor swiveled for a look. "My ride," she said. After engines and the
laughter died down, she drove home her key point: "We had that first
year to rebuild."
Mills spent her first full year in office performing the executive
equivalent of cardiopulmonary resuscitation on state government. The
state health care system she revitalized played a key role in Maine's
ability to persevere through a global pandemic. During that time, Hawaii
emerged as the best-performing
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health care system in the country; Maine was number two. "I really
appreciate [where] she's taken this state after COVID and the way
she's been able to keep us all safe during that time with her
policies," says junior Eliza Scholten, the Bowdoin Dems communications
and finance coordinator.
The Maine governor's race set up a familiar clash of the titans:
Maine's first woman governor and her Trump-prototype Republican
predecessor. Mills and LePage feuded constantly when she was attorney
general and he was governor, going mano a mano in the state courts.
Today, economy and inflation are top of mind for many Maine voters. But
after the
**Dobbs** decision, abortion hovers over everything-and the political
toxicity that LePage obviously enjoys has left voters anxious to see
Election Day in the rearview mirror.
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Republicans Have a Symbiotic Relationship With Crime
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You can't whip up a hysterical meltdown about crime without lots of
crime happening. BY RYAN COOPER
Can the Environment Help Michael Bennet in Colorado?
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Facing a tough re-election campaign, the senior Democratic senator looks
for a boost from a new national monument. BY STEPHEN BORRELLI
How Governing Can Motivate Politics
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An alternate vision for how Democrats could bring the fight to the
midterms by taking action in Congress and the White House BY DOROTHY
SLATER, TONI AGUILAR ROSENTHAL
The Crime Wave That Republicans Defend
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Corporate theft and fraud is not only tolerated by the GOP, it's
shielded. Yet Democrats rarely use this to attack Republican messaging
on crime. BY DAVID DAYEN
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