What's With the "No Signs"???

[DemocracyInaction]

Hi---(I can't believe that "Old and in the Way" lives here in Maine.) Anyway---to the point I wanted to make. I've been all over southern Maine in the last few weeks. You can't walk around Maine without tripping over republican signs but dear God I only saw 2 Libby Mitchell signs and one Pingree. Apparently, we don't have the money to put them out this year or are throwing it all into TV ads.??? Anyway it makes me nervous. Also, my daughter lives in Saco and I noticed yesterday a whole bunch of those "Cushing" signs but none for Barry (whose last name I forgot and he used to date my sister-in-law a zillion years ago). Is Barry in trouble?-- 'cause this Cushing makes my blood run cold. (Notice his shilling for the poor little health insurance companies???) One other thing. Today is Oct. 10th. Has there been any recent polls since the 30-29 one several weeks ago? I pray that people are turning away from this LePage asshole. Why don't the Dems put out some of this info about the guy's past. I only learned it here and I thought I kept up on politics!

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. Poll in today's Sunday Telegram...

http://www.pressherald.com/news/political-poll-sees-shift-in-numbers_2010-10-10.html

LePage by one. Cutler will probably hand him the election. Maine loooooooves independents. We dream of politics-without-politicians far too much.

Scondras is down by 8.

Poll is from a conservative website.

[DemocracyInaction]

2. Shit...excuse my language

I figured "independent" would screw it all up in the end because Mainers eat up the "we are soooo independent up here" garbage. That will sell real big in Portland and Libby needs Portland. Of course, a sign or two MIGHT help! I feel like the Dem Party just sort of decided not to fight this time and just turn it over to the Repukes. You can bet the churches are going to be preaching LePage from the pulpit. Why doesn't somebody put out the info about his past life??? For god's sake this state is too small for people not to be aware of this snake's past. You can bet the repukes would spare no money in getting out any such thing about Libby's past. Thanks for filling me in.

[rbilancia]

12. Have you gone to a Dem party office? Lots of people ARE working hard. Hop in the game.

[DemocracyInaction]

3. Davis--one other thing

I just clicked onto that poll. I think the big news there is that it definitely is a conservative group hired by conservatives to conduct the poll and admitted they talked to more repubs than dems because of the so-called "enthusiasm" gap. But that makes the wee light bulb go on in my head. If they did such lopsided polling, why is LePage only less than 1 point ahead??? In other words, you would expect him to have "widened" the gap on Mitchell....in other words, there are a buch of REPUBLICANS who are going to vote for Mitchell (or one of the others). I don't think this is good news for LePage at all. He apparently is by no means sweeping even the repuke vote! Wonder what Dem inside polls are showing. In fact, last night that Critical Insight group called and wanted to poll my husband. When I said he wasn't here but I'd be glad to be polled, they told me they could not poll me. Must have met their quota of women or they didn't want to deal with a fired up, wacky broad............

[Davis_X_Machina]

4. Cutler's ego + Moody's ego = LePage's win.

Moodys' chain of auto-body repair shops are in exactly the right part of the state -- Cumberland Co. outside of Portland -- to hurt Mitchell's statewide totals. The only thing Mainers worship more than 'independents' is 'small business'. Lou McNally made a career out of it on MPBN.

I expect Moody's vote, and not Cutler's to actually make the difference.

[DemocracyInaction]

7. I live down in this area

I think Moody attacts basically a bunch of his buddies and little else. I think people think more in terms of "so guy repairs dented cars and thinks he can run a state" rather than "precious small business owner". Hell, the whole state of Maine is one small business.

[Davis_X_Machina]

8. There's a substantial 'Git r done!' vote...

...out there, all dressed in Carharts. It might be big enough to be a spoiler.

[rbilancia]

10. Let's stay positive. If we persuade and GOTV hard while continuing to attack LePUKE, we can win.

Mainers won't want the nutball LePUKE.

[Old and In the Way]

5. Believe it!

:-)

From personal experience up here in D-2, Republicans make no qualms about lifting signs - it's part of their core campaign principles. I can't understand how LePage is even close in this race...but, in general, I think we're seeing the effects of unaccountable corporate campaign money coming in heavy for the Rep/TP/Con candidates. Dumb, dependent, and beholden are recruiting qualities required running under the GOP banner. And boy howdy, private corporate business interests are investing big-time in the Republican Party! It's not charity that's driving their funding - it's the expected ROI that motivates them. Combine that with corporate polling and corporate reporting, it's easy to see how the 'Republicans are winning!' message gets seeded/saturated in the public mind. And, if they still doesn't do the trick, you have corporate owned voting systems that can provide the final results.

Without the 'Citizens United' gift from the Republican majority on SCOTUS, the Republican Party would be in deep trouble with their enemic fundraising. I just wish the voter would put the puzzle pieces together and understand who is retarding this country's recovery. Apparently, the previous 30 years isn't enough history for some people to determine which Party has gone long on personal greed while shorting this country's long term interests.

[DemocracyInaction]

6. I suspected the "money"

First thing through my mind was that we, too, alas here in Maine have been hit by the outside (like China) money. It's very apparent. I'm sure asshole Anthem has nothing to do with it...nothing at all. If we didn't have state and municipal jobs in this state, we wouldn't have any jobs at all and the goobers are ready to flush this whole state down the toilet so they can get fucked over by insurance (of course I don't know if half of them even know what a doctor is). I just keep thinking "Beans of Egypt Maine" and how true it is. (I moved here 20 years ago from the midwest---culture shock).

[Po_d Mainiac]

14. This half of the State has

Changed dramatically over the last 30+ years. At face value it's not real obvious esp. to someone whom is of relatively late arrival.

'Egypyt' existed/s all around varied part of the State. Those places are not really any different than a poverty stricken inner city neighborhood. They are part of the landscape and have been for as long as I can remember. Often you had to turn off the paved roads to get there. Other times they kind of appear as a blight at the bottom of a hill and disappear just as quickly at the posted speed limit.

During my lifespan, rural Maine was mostly a labor intensive region. That labor varied from absolute mindlessness to high precision machining (often with low tech equipment).

What always existed was work. The shoe, woolen and other textile based industries employed thousands. Wood harvesting and milling employed thousands. Agriculture and food processing employed thousands. The pay sucked, but you could live pretty cheap.

This was not a labor force that was capable of going through some miraculous metamorphosis as the shoe shops closed and the age of mechanized wood harvesting became the norm. Nothing filled the void as the last of the locally raised chickens were processed, and even the processing facilities became just more empty spaces between 4 walls.

Land used to exchange hands for tens of dollars per acre or a whole field in exchange for a tractor. The exchange rate explosion in RE did more to destroy personal wealth, than any other dynamic IMHO. Even at shit wages one could afford a tract of land. If you owned the land and could kill or catch some food, life was pretty good.

The changes occurred way too fast for rural Maine to adapt. What was left was what Mother Nature created and that was about it.

The work that used to support government is gone. It's not that government has grown per se. The Public used to own and maintain a lot more structures in the past than in today's society. Those structures were kept solid and sound by fees/taxes paid by working people. It's ironic that the public sector pay-scale was historically less than that of the private sector. (I am in no position to draw any conclusions, nor will I)

So it's not that government and health care are the largest employers, it's that they are all that are left. Those industries used to be in the middle of the food chain with support higher up. They are now at the top of the food chain lacking the historic support above, and ill positioned to support the rest of the links bellow.
YMMV

[Po_d Mainiac]

9. Hey Bud...You mean the other end of MHD #24 is still in Maine?

You must come across as being too smart to a Mainiac. :shrug:

The Gov debate is playing...LePage is wondering why its so dark. He keeps yanking on what he thinks is a light cord, but all that's within reach are his inflamed hemorrhoids

[Crystal Clarity]

13. Hi Po_d! Long time no see!

:hi:

[Po_d Mainiac]

15. Hi neighbor

Geez there was a pretty large picture of self in the print version of the MS and KJ a few weeks ago....And NO it was not with the OBIT's
...Don't tell me u missed it?
:hi:

[Crystal Clarity]

18. Bummer... Yes I did miss it unfortunately.

I rarely buy the print version of the MS because I very much dislike giving that right leaning rag my $. Even if it's just a modest amount. However, it clearly has some redemptive qualities, considering the fact that your likeness graced one of it's pages. Damn... I wish I had seen it! I hope all is well w/you. :-)

[rbilancia]

11. Because of clean elections, sign money has been tight. Many ARE in the bigger towns. People are mak-

ing them too.

[high density]

16. I'd like to know why we allow our state to become a sea of signs every election

I can't stand having our public areas cluttered up with such unsightly garbage. If people want to express their freedom of speech with a sign, they can do so on their own property or they can stand there holding it.

Bottom line is that signs can't vote, although I think Eliot Cutler and Shawn Moody apparently are hoping they do given the number they're putting up.

[rbilancia]

17. It's called campaigning, and this is the norm in America. I like it.