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LOOKING FOR THE SILVER LINING
Progressives get beat in Maine
BY SAM PFEIFLE

PORTLAND, MAINE — It’s just before midnight, the end of Election Day, and I am the last person to get a word with defeated Green Independent Party gubernatorial candidate Jonathan Carter. We’re just outside the Connecticut Room of the Portland Holiday Inn, where his supporters have gathered to watch the results — and then his concession speech at around 11 p.m., as it becomes clear that his roughly 10 percent of the vote would not be enough to win.

He still looks good, in a blue suit and red tie, with a blue scarf draped over his shoulders, despite the late hour and a string of interviews, most of which have focused on his level of disappointment after being the first publicly funded gubernatorial candidate ever, receiving $900,000 in state money, and still garnering only about three percent more of the vote than he did as a candidate in 1994. He ran that campaign for about $40,000.

Behind us, campaign workers gather their possessions as TV news stations wind up cables and the man who designed much of Carter’s campaign materials angrily pops balloons.

Both of us are tired, so I ask him only one question: "Regardless of party, do you think progressives have scored a victory today?"

He looks at me a little surprised. "No," he says. "John Baldacci is likely going to be our next governor, and Chellie Pingree lost. I’d say progressives have taken quite a hit today."

This makes Carter slightly more realistic than the folks at the Pingree campaign I’ve just left. After waiting till well past 10:30 p.m. to see their candidate arrive, the 250-or-so folks in attendance, most of them quite drunk, give her a tremendous round of cheers. They chant her name: "Chellie, Chellie, Chellie," as the Democratic candidate for US senator looked damn near radiant in a purple suit over a pink shirt and a beaming smile. This was no accident. Pingree’s press person told me earlier that Pingree’s get-out-the-vote 24-hour blitz had caused her to go a few days without showering, and she had taken some time to freshen up. Hence, her lateness.

As people awaited Pingree’s arrival, there were moments of surprising optimism, considering the following: pre-election polling numbers had Pingree down nearly 30 points, and her party had abandoned her to the point that confident Democratic candidates John Baldacci (governor) and Tom Allen (US House District 1) planned a victory party, without her, at a downtown Portland bar, while Pingree’s party was held in an out-of-the-way photo studio with linoleum floors and a warehouse ceiling.

When one percent of the vote was in, Pingree was up 64 to 36 — and a hearty cheer went up among the television watchers. "She’s going to win!" gushed one man who had spent the past three weeks manufacturing Pingree signs. At two percent, Pingree held a steady 55 to 45 edge — more cheers. Eleven percent saw her slip to a 53-to-47 edge, but people still cheered.

They simply went into denial when 20 percent of the precincts reported Collins ahead 55 to 45 and all three local television stations projected Collins as the winner. Most knew all along, of course, that Portland, filled with progressives, always reports first, and that the rest of Maine was unlikely to be as supportive. I did have to explain this, however, to a pair of earnest high schoolers who tapped me on the shoulder and asked, "What’s going on?"

Pingree seemed to deny the facts, too. As Collins gave a victory speech of sorts on televisions in front of her, Pingree rehashed her stump speech and trumpeted victories: "We won Lewiston." (Cheers.) "We won Waterville." (Cheers.) "We won Portland." (Lots of cheers.)

Standing in front of her ardent followers, Pingree then seemed at a loss. "I say we keep partying!"

If progressives in Maine are looking for real reasons to party, however, they’ll have to look for small victories. In state House District 31, for instance, Green Independent Party candidate John Eder scored a victory, making history as Maine’s first Green legislator. And in the mill town of Westbrook, the hometown of Christian Coalition of Maine executive director Paul Volle, a gay-rights referendum passed by a mere 200 votes.

At Eder’s post-election party, held in swank digs known as the Danforth, this latter piece of information received more cheers than the news that his opponent had called to concede.

Issue Date: November 7 - 14, 2002
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