There is still a long way to go until Maine’s next gubernatorial election and as the old saying goes, anything can happen between now and then. However, the whispered consensus right now is that Gov. LePage has, at best, a long-shot chance of winning a second term.
As the governor has found out, the abrasive, take-no-prisoners style that plays so well on the campaign trail does not automatically translate into governing, which is why most politicians tamp down the partisan rhetoric between elections… or they used to, anyway.
However, if a story in the Portland Press Herald is to be believed, former Gov. John Baldacci is considering running for the Blaine House again.
Let that sink in for a minute.
We’re betting it’s just talk, but at this point, Baldacci might be LePage’s best hope for a second term. At an LCN candidates’ forum in 2010, not one Democrat could say something supportive about the then-sitting, two-term governor.
This corner never cared for Baldacci. We didn’t like his budget gimmicks. We didn’t care for his questionable accounting, or his knife-in-the-back style of partisanship.
He is the governor who subverted a clear mandate from the people requiring the state deliver on its long-promised, never-delivered 55 percent share of education funding.
Baldacci’s lasting gift to the state of Maine was ramming school consolidation through. Ask the folks in RSU 12 how that’s going for them.
By including consolidation in his budget as though it actually saved money, Baldacci avoided any real debate and he forestalled a statewide vote on the issue until long after the horse was out of the barn.
Baldacci was the classic tell-you-what-you-want-to-hear-while-doing-what-he-wanted politician and we were heartily glad to see the back of him in 2010.
Following his snake oil salesman act, LePage’s bull-in-a-China-shop routine was downright refreshing…for a little while.
LePage still has time to turn things around, and we hope he does if for no other reason than he is the sitting governor. However, he is not off to a good start with this Legislature and it does him no good to be openly antagonistic to whomever he perceives to be the opposition.
The gifts he hinted at during his up-from-obscurity campaign, his intelligence, drive and ability to bring people together, seem to be failing him in a job where charm and communication are the coin of the realm.
Still, a LePage-Baldacci race might be useful for some gallow humor as we’ll be in for a steady stream of partisans earnestly trying to convince us their’s is the best man for the job.
