After the Republican straw vote fiasco, why isn’t the Maine GOP or the press reporting who won the delegate votes? The name and number of those elected to the state convention is not published on the GOP website and has yet to be released to the press.
The delegate vote was far more important than the nonbinding straw poll, because it is the delegates who decide who gets to vote for the Republican nominee for president.
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What’s the big secret? Could it be that Ron Paul won the delegate vote?
Patrick Eisenhart
Augusta
It’s been nearly two weeks since the supposed end date of the GOP caucuses, but it appears that it will have much larger implications than how to divide Maine’s 24 national delegates.
Maine’s caucuses are unlike those held in any other state in the nation. While most states hold their caucus on one day, in Maine, towns can hold caucuses anytime between January and March 20. The catch is that the votes only count if they are cast between Feb. 4 and 11. Although the exclusion of Washington County’s votes was an unusual circumstance, it was by no means the first time that voters have been denied the ability to participate in a Maine caucus.
The most fundamental problem with the caucuses in Maine is limited participation. What is most disturbing about this arcane system of voting for a potential presidential candidate is that only 5,600 of Maine’s 278,000 registered Republicans actually voted in this year’s caucus.
It’s no wonder Maine is a nonbinding straw poll. How can you pick a winner when only 2 percent of those eligible to vote actually participate? Although it had problems of its own, the Iowa caucus saw 6.5 percent voter turnout.
The key consequence of the current caucus system is limiting the voice of Mainers. The time commitment required and lack of information of how the system works in Maine kept GOP members from participating this February in what could be one of the most important GOP primaries in recent history.
It is time for Maine to return to a one-day primary. This is clear by turnouts of 31 percent and 17.6 percent in the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries, respectively.
Although it will cost Maine money to facilitate a primary election, the stakes are too high to retain the current caucus process.
Matt Mayo
Scarborough
During the recent GOP caucuses across Maine there were a number of incidents of tactics being employed by some attendees that, while perhaps not illegal, certainly were unethical.
Some examples: confronting a town chairman just prior to the caucus to inform him that unless he was a 110 percent supporter of Ron Paul, he could not be the town’s delegation chair to the convention, thereby attempting to short-circuit the entire process of nominations and voting by the caucus attendees; aggressively trying to place Paul stickers on attendees as they were entering; rowdiness while other candidate representatives were addressing the caucus; repeatedly demanding to be given the list of delegates/alternates to the convention, including all contact information, after being told repeatedly that these lists would not be released, for very obvious reasons; and finally the Paul organization paying the entrance fee to the upcoming convention for some, in order to increase their attendance.
Please note that in my experience, the officials who were sent to the caucuses by the Paul campaign were very professional, courteous, polite and presented themselves very well.
The conduct of these other attendees was a disservice to these official representatives, the candidate and the caucus attendees.
Most people who go to the caucuses do so to better inform themselves on the candidates and should not be harangued in the process.
I would strongly urge the state convention committee to have precautionary measures in place should similar problems develop at the convention.
Mike Morrissette
Harrison
Super Bowl loss shouldn’t overshadow school funding
I was a tad perturbed when I saw the bold headline exclaiming “What a loss” on the front page of the Feb. 6 Portland Press Herald. I too was a bit shocked by the Patriots’ defeat in the Super Bowl, again at the hands of the New York Giants, however this wasn’t what irked me.
To the right of the bold headline was a scantily featured story detailing the millions of dollars that will soon be cut from local school departments across the state, with a relatively meek headline likening these cuts to losing out on a “piece of the pie.”
I had to look at the page several times before submitting to the fact that the editor had totally dropped the ball on this one. How else could this incredibly tactless decision have been made?
I love sports. I often find myself caught in the endless cycle of sports — as the weather changes so too does my focus on the relevant New England team of that season.
I value my education more, though. Losing a football game, however large the stage or stakes, is never as big a loss as pulling the rug out from educational access and resources for Maine’s students.
Adam Williams
Brunswick
Single-payer system would end health controversies
To the long list of compelling reasons for Americans to keep pushing for a single-payer universal health care system we can now add another.
If employers weren’t compelled to provide costly private insurance for their workers, they wouldn’t be facing decisions about which drugs or procedures should or shouldn’t be covered.
The overblown controversy over “violating religious freedom” here just doesn’t exist in other developed countries with systems that cover all health care for everyone, at far less cost and with better outcomes, by most measures.
Up to 95 cents of each health dollar is spent on actual care elsewhere; here we divert as much as 30 cents of each dollar to insurance companies.
Most employers who are concerned less with moral scruples than about the large bite that health care costs take from their bottom line, would be thrilled to be “out of the insurance loop.” And any unfortunate employees laid off due to just such rising costs wouldn’t face the demoralizing double whammy of losing their family’s health insurance along with their job.
James H. Maier, M.D.
Scarborough
Tax cut not worth the pain of trimming MaineCare
Hold that tax cut! We can’t afford it.
With the continuing debate over cuts to MaineCare, any reference to last year’s $150 million tax cut barely gets mentioned. But isn’t that the crux of our financial woes?
Gov. LePage pushed really hard and convinced a majority of the Legislature to put through a tax cut with no forethought of future expenses.
Would he have done this for himself? Would he have spent money he didn’t have and then complained that he couldn’t pay the bills?
I think not.
He’s too smart not to have known there would be great shortfalls in funding health care. He bet on that shortfall to force the Legislature to cut the lower economic scale while the upper end divvied up much of the $150 million for themselves.
According to our governor, 70,000 people were removed from the tax rolls. Did they get a bonanza? Hardly. Someone making $30,000 a year received a tax cut of around $2 a month. Don’t you think these people would have forgone their tax cut to ensure proper health care for someone less well off? MaineCare needs to be fixed, but not under the financial gun.
I think Maine people realize that the tax cut they “bought” is too expensive, and needs to be put on hold. Nine months of no tax cut would restore $112 million to be used for much better things than delivering a tax cut that pays for a monthly loaf of bread.
Jane Sumner
Hiram
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