I could not resist confronting voters about why on earth they would vote down a tax increase passed by the legislature, then re-elect the same legislators that passed the tax. The Democrats have a near two-to-one majority in the Maine House, and a two or three seat margin, depending on recounts, in the state Senate. Yet Maine voters tell pollsters they think the state taxes and spends too much. What is going on?
A 2008 Market Decisions poll found 60 percent of Mainers dissatisfied with the high level of taxes they pay, with 56 percent saying they did not feel they were getting their money’s worth from Augusta. When asked what should be done about the state’s budget shortfall, 70 percent said they supported spending cuts; 80 percent said they opposed any tax increase, even a temporary one, to balance the budget.
Yet on Election Day, Maine voters enlarged Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate. In the House alone, Democrats will outnumber Republicans by an almost two-to-one margin, up from a margin of just one seat only four years ago.
So what is going on here? Do voters actually support high taxes and spending, but tell pollsters otherwise? Or, if they believe Maine is headed in the wrong direction, why do they keep re-electing the same people who have been running things in Augusta for more than 30 years?
I wish I had the answer to this. We’re not getting the message out – we’re not getting people riled up and we’re not attaching the state’s manifest failures to the Democrats. Really need some new thinking here – desperately…
Obviously a large plurality of Maine voters, large enough to be the difference-maker, do not identify the small government direction they prefer with the GOP or with the GOP candidates on their ballots.
It’s time for the Maine GOP and their allies to spend money on a media campaign to identify the GOP with a pro-freedom, low-tax, less central government approach to governing.
Buy ad time on Time Warner, for example, to run during Sports Center or the Bruins or Rachael Ray. Don’t make it about candidates, make it about branding the GOP.
I tend to agree with this. I think we’re finding that the candidate really does matter on Election Day, but given the vast GOP minority in both houses of the Legislature, why not do some kind of ad campaign talking about what we would do if in power – a positive message, some good policy pieces in there, and go after them for tax increases, etc. We need to establish the Maine GOP brand a little…