Posted on 02/09/2011 5:41:03 AM PST by Palmetto Patriot
The Top of the Hill Grill here is 65 miles away from the coastal summering hole and old-money hangout of Boothbay Harbor—and a world apart. Stop by for breakfast, and you’ll be surrounded by guys in blaze orange, retired couples who get their blueberry muffins toasted, and an oil burner repairman who moonlights as the Karl Rove of the Maine GOP. I’m here a few weeks after the November elections to find the remarkable story behind an improbable headline in the New York Times: “Overnight, Maine Turns Red.” For the first time since 1964, Maine Republicans captured the governorship, the senate, and the house—a trifecta made possible, boasts GOP mastermind Charlie Webster as he chews on his ham and cheese omelet, because “we represent the working people” and were able to convince voters of this.
(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...
I am a fifth-generation Downeast Maine native.
For the most part, folks where I grew up were ALWAYS conservative, and voted so. In the last twenty years, however, Maine has been literally overrun with refugees from CT, MA, NY, et al, who flee to Maine to escape the steadily-degrading conditions that the socialists (elected by said refugees) in those states have created. Once comfortably settled into their new state, they realize how backwards us poor natives are, and immediately take it upon themselves to recreate the progressive cesspool they so recently fled.
Add to this mix two groups: the elderly voters, who still see the democrat party as the party of JFK, and the wishy-washiness of the “independent” voters. The resulting train wreck creates the conditions that have destroyed Maine’s economic base for years: enormous tax burdens, low employment, spiraling deficits, business-hostile overregulation, and an exploding class of apathetic welfare recipients and illegal aliens.
My wife and I have been ready at the lifeboats for the past year, getting our ducks in a row to abandon ship for a move to income tax-free New hampshire. The recent election has put those plans on hold, while we wait and see just how much the newly-minted conservative governor and legislature can accomplish.
The article provides confirmation of this:
"The biggest Democratic donor in Maine is a hedge fund manager from the northwoods of Greenwich, Connecticut."
Actually, that donor is the billionaire fiance of Chellie Pingree, democrat House rep from Maine.
I know she’s from the party of the people and represents the working man and all, but I guess I must be a shut-in because don’t know any other working people that fly around on their boyfriend’s private jet on their way to their private compound in the Caribbean.
I remember a story during the elections about Barney Frank getting a free ride to the islands. Was this related?
Maybe that means hope that the US Senate can finally quit itself of Snowe and Collins — the Lenin Sisters.
Well said. I would warn you tho NH is basically in the same boat, infested with the same blight. I think its better for you all to fight it out rather than be run off.
We moved from NH several years ago and the situation was looking bleak. It seems as of late (like ME) the people have come to their senses and remembered that prosperity is a conservative idea. I hope you all get the tax situation taken care of b/c ME is a really great place otherwise. Glad to hear you’re not going to jump ship!
IIRC isn’t a conservative running or thinking of running against Snowe? Sure hope so. The real question is will the voters still be awake. I think there’s a good chance of it if Jug Ears continues his Jimmah II act and Snowe/Collins continue to collaborate.
Sure.....Get back to me when they do something about Snowe & Collins.
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