Monthly Archives: August 2011

Building a budget from zero finds the waste

Lost in all the kerfuffle over congressional redistricting has been a rather interesting tidbit of news. Gov. Paul LePage has asked his cabinet to institute a new (for Maine) way of drawing up state budget numbers, something called “zero-base budgeting.” There probably isn’t a drier topic on earth than the budget process, but for Maine, […]

Susan Cook Is A Lunatic

The redistricting squabble has shown no signs, as of yet, of lessening.  Yesterday, the redistricting commission held a public hearing, and invited Maine citizens to step up to the mic and give a piece of their mind to the lawmakers on the panel. That’s when this happened: Susan Cook, the secretary of the Maine Democratic […]

Rethinking congressional districts: Let’s get vertical

You would think, after listening to the Democrats scream bloody murder at the unveiling of theRepublican congressional redistricting plan, that it represented some kind of unprecedented power grab, intended to crush the Democratic party forever. I suppose I can understand this reaction. The phony outrage is in line with just about everything else that has […]

I Can’t Recall

In early April, then-Rep. Cynthia Dill introduced legislation in the Maine House that would have instituted a recall provision in Maine. This would have given Maine people the ability to essentially call for a “vote of no confidence” in the governor, legislators and constitutional officers, removing them from office. At first glance, you might think this is […]

All Parties Foolish In Hyperbolic Voting Debate

NOTE:  The following article originally appeared in the Bangor Daily News, as the first of Matthew Gagnon’s weekly opinion columns for BDN. With due respect to everyone involved in the same-day voter registration squabble, you’re all getting on my nerves. This debate has quickly devolved from what could have been an honest and needed conversation […]

PTP Named Maine's Best State Blog By Washington Post

Today, Chris Cilliza of the Washington Post published 2011’s list of the best state level blogs.  The list was built from submissions from the reading public, with the results compiled and put into list form.  Pine Tree Politics was this year’s sole representative from the state of Maine. So, naturally, I’m taking that to proclaim […]

Maine Heritage Gets A New Face

Tarren Bragdon announced in April that he would be leaving his position as CEO of the Maine Heritage Policy Center to start up a similar organization in Florida, leaving a gaping hole in conservative policy leadership in Maine. Maine Heritage is unquestionably the most influential conservative think tank in Maine (yes, there are others), and Tarren […]

A Threat To Maine Jobs

Rather than blathering endlessly about phantom issues invented to simply raise money, I have a suggestion for challengers to Senator Olympia Snowe.  Ask her about where she stands on a potential threat to nearly a thousand Maine workers.  The welfare of the Maine people, after all, is the most important responsibility of a lawmaker representing […]

D'Amboise Continues His Travashamockery Of A Campaign

Today, on the heels of the United States Senate vote on the debt ceiling increase, I received a fundraising email from the Scott D’Amboise for Senate campaign. I’m pretty used to dishonest and mind-numbingly stupid emails from politicians seeking office, and D’Amboise is hardly the only offender.  Still, his emails have always been particularly dishonest and […]