Good morning from Augusta, where you won’t find many of the candidates in Tuesday’s major primary elections. But those candidates in tomorrow’s race for Maine governor and the Democratic nomination in the 2nd Congressional District were pushing for last-minute votes across Maine on Monday from Madawaska to York County.
Two Democratic gubernatorial candidates increased cooperation over the weekend and will appear together again on Monday. One of the most interesting developments of Maine’s first ranked-choice voting campaign has been the cooperation between former House Speaker Mark Eves and lobbyist Betsy Sweet, who have been urging people who vote for them first to rank the other second on Tuesday. One of Sweet’s campaign managers, Stephanie Clifford, said that Sweet and Eves were running joint canvasses over the weekend.
They’ll also appear together at a Portland news conference at 10:30 a.m. today to “jointly endorse” a yes vote on Question 1, which would preserve ranked-choice voting in primary and congressional elections (even though all seven Democrats running for governor are on the record as supporting it).
We have no context for how ranked-choice wrangling will work, but Sweet and Eves are likely trying to tamp down mid-round support for Attorney General Janet Mills, who has been the nominal front-runner for much of the race, though attorney Adam Cote has come on strong at the end and may now be Mills’ top rival.
