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Political Brew: setting the tone

While Maine's race for governor has been relatively quiet, the fighting in the second Congressional district is fierce.

The four candidates for Congress in Maine's second district met for their first joint appearance in a NEWS CENTER Maine "Voice of the Voter" forum last week.

Rep. Bruce Poliquin (R-Maine) came out swinging and over the course of an hour attacked Democrat Jared Golden, repeatedly calling him "a young radical with a socialist agenda." Golden wound up spending much of his time responding to Poliquin's digs.

Our political analysts were unimpressed by Poliquin's performance. Former state senator Phil Harriman, a Republican, says "Poliquin was rude and repetitive. If his goal was to get under Jared Golden's skin and have him react the way he did, Poliquin can claim victory."

Democrat John Richardson, a former Speaker of the House, agrees.

"When (Golden) took the bait responding over and over again to what Bruce was doing, I think what he did was take himself off message."

By contrast, the four-way race for governor has been more polite, at least during the many debates and joint appearances. Richardson says "That race is so tight that neither candidate really wants to take a shot at turning off voters."

Harriman believes we may start to see a bit more verbal sparring between Democrat Janet Mills and Republican Shawn Moody in the NEWS CENTER Maine "Voice of the Voter" forum set for Wednesday, October 17th at 7:00PM from the Augusta Civic Center, where the Maine State Chamber of Commerce is holding its annual meeting.

Harriman says "All of the airwaves have been focused on the Kavanagh hearings, that's now over. That now gives the candidates a chance to have the spotlight and perhaps use some of these themes that came out of Washington in the gubernatorial race. I think you're going to see the contrast that you're talking about."

The analysts also talked about the New York Times report on a sexual discrimination complaint against Shawn Moody 12 years ago. A former employee complained to the Maine Human Rights Commission in 2006 accusing Moody of firing her because she had given birth and would no longer be able to do the job. Shawn Moody denies that's what happened.

The complaint was withdrawn as part of a settlement agreement between the company and the accuser.

John Richardson believes the story could change the dynamics of the gubernatorial race.

"it may be unfair to Shawn because these are allegations and there were no factual findings that followed the allegations, but there was a settlement."

He adds that it taps into concerns among women, which could affect their votes.

But Phil Harriman thinks the report will not be consequential. "If this was the way Shawn Moody ran his business there would be more instances of these things. From my understanding there are employees, female employees stepping up as forcefully as they can to say that it's not the work environment they work in."

Harriman and Richardson also talk about the potential political fallout for Sen. Susan Collins over the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. supreme Court, and why Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) is running re-election ads for the first time in four years, largely because of the use this year of ranked choice voting.

Political Brew airs Sundays on the Morning Report.

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