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home > radio > maine news > news story Maine NewsUpsets of Well-Known Candidates Raise Questions About The Electorate's Desire For Change
They may have been lost in the glare of the spotlight on Maine's 1st Congressional District races, but Tuesday's primary produced several upsets in state House and Senate races. A few well-established candidates were vanquished by youthful newcomers to state politics who may have been riding a wave of change ushered in by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Most of Maine's newspaper headlines predicted a heavy voter turnout based on a 35 percent projection offered by Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap. He says he came up with the figure based on interest in the February caucuses and what he perceived as intense interest in southern Maine's 1st Congressional District. But unofficial returns show the statewide turnout was actually closer to 16 percent. Dunlap says, "I'm not exactly sure what we missed when we were talking about turnout numbers because there was a lot of interest in local ballots." Dunlap was convinced southern Maine voters would turn out in larger numbers than their northern Maine counterparts, and he was right about that. Preliminary numbers indicate that 27 percent of all southern Maine Democrats and 19 percent of the Republicans voted Tuesday, but that's still far short of what Dunlap expected. He says many voters may have been caught up in the presidential primaries and lost sight of local races: "The Congressional primary didn't really rise to above the fold in the newspaper until after the presidential was more or less concluded. The presidential race has really dominated the headlines in recent months, and Congressional primaries have kind of been flying a little bit under the radar. So maybe that's something we didn't project properly. You know, maybe people weren't really thinking about it." The inability of candidates to get their voters to the polls was key in several legislative races around the state. Lawrence Steven Bliss, a Democratic state representative from South Portland trounced Ed Kelleher in a two-way contest for Portland's Senate District 7. A former Bangor state representative, Kelleher has deep ties to the Democratic Party and was expected to do well. And in another Portland race, a 33-year-old novice and grandson of the late Maine philanthropist Harold Alfond defeated veteran Democratic state Rep. Anne Rand in a state senate bid. Justin Alfond defeated Rand in a three-way race. The outcome surpised election watchers like Dennis Bailey who operates a Portland public relations firm. Bailey commented, "Rand I think was just seen, sort of, yesterday's news and this was a young guy who, you know, came forward and had sort of a name. It's a fairly liberal district. If you go back and look at a questionnaire that Alfond filled out, he said he was glad to see gas at $4 a gallon, I mean, there aren't many candidates who can win a race by saying that kind of stuff." In another contest that seemed to pit youth against experience, Gerry Palmer, a sitting member of the Bangor City Council and former Penobscot County Treasurer, was forced to settle for 19 percent of the vote in his statehouse bid, and the seat was won by 23-year-old Democratic newcomer Adam Goode. Palmer says his opponent staged a great campaign, but he also says Goode had some advantages, "He spent four months, full-time, door-to-door in this process. That paid big dividends for him. Okay, I'm sitting at a City Council budget meetings, I'm sitting at City Council meetings in the evenings when I should be out on the street, but the reality is there's no time for me to do that." Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine, says a handful of races in which youthful challengers triumphed over the old guard may not necessarily indicate a movement. But on the other hand, he thinks it may also be more than a coincidence that 6,000 new Democratic voters have registered since the beginning of the year when presidential candidate Barack Obama came to Maine. Brewer explains, "For Democrats who have picked up that many, you gotta figure Obama's at least part of that explanation." The 17 state House and Senate races are expected to pick up in earnest later this summer when the political season heats up.
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