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Bangor Daily News ‏@bangordailynews 1h1 hour ago BREAKING: LePage, Christie endorse @realDonaldTrump for president http://bdn.to/xzxr #mepolitics Michael Shepherd ‏@mikeshepherdME 2h2 hours ago LePage calls Rubio and Cruz "two of the people who create the gridlock" in Washington. #mepolitics 23 retweets 14 likes

There has been some confusion about statements made by Ben Jealous, former president and CEO of the NAACP, on his February 10 appearance on The Rachel Maddow Show. Here is the video clip and text transcript of that night's appearance. MADDOW: In the Democratic presidential field, as the two Democratic candidates are about to leave states where the electorate was 91 percent and 93 percent white respectively, they're headed into much more diverse states. The Democratic candidates now are fighting tooth and nail not only to try to appeal to minority voters and specifically to African-American Democratic voters, they are...

A scheduled Q&A quickly turned into a political rally as 7,000-8,000+ show up for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ event in Portland, Maine. Here is a shot of the crowd: Mario Moretto of the Bangor Daily News reported that the crowd was estimated to be 7,000 with more people coming in....

This clip confirms the extent to which condescension on the left has replaced efforts to convince those skeptical of the medical community’s assessment of Ebola’s communicability of their error. In an appearance on CNN on Thursday, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) sought to assure the viewing audience that everyone (including, presumably, the Democratic governors of California, New Hampshire, and New York) is overreacting to the threat of Ebola. When probed by anchor Carol Costello as to why the president’s freshly appointed “Ebola Czar,” Ron Klain, has not come out publicly and assured the nation that there is no medical need to...

WATERVILLE, Maine — With three weeks remaining before the critical midterm congressional elections, the character of American politics for the next two years and for the presidential campaign that will begin in earnest next month is unusually uncertain. In fact, the contours of our national civic life are more undefined than they have been since the overtime election of 2000 — a period of ambiguity no one is eager to repeat. So, as the election nears, the American political landscape can be described as a combination of enthusiasm and ennui that defies clear definition. In fact, enthusiasm and ennui are...

BANGOR, Maine – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas on Saturday won an unofficial straw poll to be the 2016 GOP presidential nominee at the Penobscot County Republican caucus at Husson University. Administered by the Maine Republican Liberty Caucus, caucus attendees paid $1 for a ballot that listed 20 potential GOP presidential candidates’ names plus room for write-ins, according to Maine RLC State Chair Vic Berardelli. Balloters were asked to mark their first, second and third choice. Points were weighted at five points for a first place vote, three points for second and one point for a third place vote....

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is the first Republican supporter of a bill that would allow U.S. citizens to bring their foreign same-sex partners to the country for legal residency. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Collins (R-Maine) will introduce the bill, which Leahy has introduced every year since 2003 and insisted should be part of any immigration reform deal. “More than two dozen countries recognize same-sex couples for immigration purposes,” Collins said. “This important civil rights legislation would help prevent committed, loving families from being forced to choose between leaving their family or leaving their country.” Leahy said...

. NBC News : Free Republic's Patton@Bastogne calls-out Myth Romney as a "Pathelogical Political Liar" at the Tampa 2012 GOP Convention ... Patton@Bastogne calls-out Myth Romney as a "Pathelogical Political Liar" in Tampa ...(click) Internet Link: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nbcnews.com/48798495 .

(VIDEO AT LINK) "Maine’s welfare program is cannibalizing the rest of state government. To all you able-bodied people out there get off the couch and get yourself a job," Gov. Paul LePage (R-Maine) said at the state Republican convention this past weekend....

After Democrats threw their biggest names into the mix for Olympia Snowe’s soon-to-be vacated U.S. Senate seat earlier this week, Republicans were the newsmakers on Friday. Five members of the GOP took out petitions for a Senate run, joining previously declared Republican candidate Scott D’Amboise in the race. Secretary of State Charlie Summers became the first Republican to take out petitions after Snowe announced Tuesday that she would not seek a fourth term. Treasurer Bruce Poliquin followed close behind Friday afternoon, then former Maine Senate President Rick Bennett and state Sen. Debra Plowman. Attorney General William Schneider joined the race...

Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe’s announcement on Tuesday that she will not seek re-election after more than three decades on Capitol Hill certainly sent shockwaves across Washington, D.C. What does it exactly mean to LGBT-friendly Republicans? Snowe is among the six Republicans in the U.S. Senate who voted for a bill that repealed the military’s ban on openly gay and lesbian servicemembers. She is also a co-sponsor of the federal Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The vast majority of her Republican colleagues were obviously unwilling to meet her in the middle on these issues. "As I enter a new chapter, I see a...

By now, it is clear that the Maine caucuses were a complete mess. Evidence is mounting that Mitt Romney's 194-vote victory over Ron Paul was prematurely announced, if not totally wrong. Washington County canceled their caucus on Saturday on account of three inches of snow (hardly a blizzard by Maine standards), and other towns that scheduled their caucuses for this week have been left out of the vote count. Now, it looks like caucuses that did take place before Feb. 11 have also been left out of final tally. As the full extent of the chaos unfolds, sources close to...

Mitt Romney’s twin wins over the weekend in the Maine caucuses and the Conservative Political Action Conference’s annual straw poll leave the GOP presidential-nomination race right where it’s been all along — in trouble and waiting for a Prince Charming. In Maine, Romney won with 39.2 percent of the vote, less than four points ahead of Ron Paul. The principal “not-Romneys” — Paul and Rick Santorum — took 53 percent of the roughly 5,600 nonbinding votes cast, about 2 percent of the state’s Republican electorate. Romney’s numbers were similar in the CPAC poll, in which he grabbed 38 percent of...

As it turns out, Maine Republicans in a few towns will caucus this Saturday (January 28). The original plan I spoke with the Maine Republican Party about back in September revolved around the idea of holding caucuses within a window from February 4 and February 11 with a big reveal on that final date. That is still mostly true as most of the caucus venues will hold party meetings within that window. However, there are a few caucuses that branch out quite far from those two bookend dates. The collective caucus Lincoln, Lowell, Burlington, Chester, Enfield, Winn and Howland will...

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...

It is beginning to look like the GOP has declared open season on Mama Grizzlies- or at least one Mama Grizzly. Many Republicans are losing their willingness to stay silent about Sarah Palin, and the latest is Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins who has always been a moderate politically. New England’s Republicans have been reluctant to cater to the Tea Party because it is not a very strong movement in the region. Vermont’s Tea Party rallies have attracted around a hundred people, for instance. Senator Collins feels that former Governor Palin cost the Republicans control of the Senate with her...

Insanity is when you continue to do the same thing and expect different results. Maine people are not insane, so why do they continue to elect the Democrats to the Legislature and expect improvements? Maine continues to decline. If Maine really wanted the millions in funds that come with the “Race to the Top” program, why is it not publicized that one of the qualifications is to have charter schools? The teachers’ union opposes charter schools and the Democrats agree. Why are Maine’s health insurance rates so high? Maine Republicans have repeatedly proposed corrective measures, only to be voted down....

List of Republicans who voted for the Stimulus House of Representatives No Republicans voted for the bill Senate Collins (R-ME) Snowe (R-ME) Specter (R-PA) *

Olympia Snowe said today that her Republican colleagues' pending "no" votes on Sonia Sotomayor raise "a serious concern" about alienating their Hispanic constituencies. The Maine moderate was among the first GOP lawmakers to say she would vote yes, joining Mel Martinez of Florida and Richard Lugar of Indiana on July 17. Snowe told reporters that voting for Sotomayor "would have certainly been an avenue for appealing to the Hispanic community, where we did poorly in the last election. I think we can ill afford to lose their support in the future when we're attempting to rebuild the Republican Party nationally,"...

Is it wrong to have a serious crush on the “First Dude” of Alaska and the future Second Gentleman of the United States? Because if crushing on Todd Palin is wrong, then man, we do not want to be right. We just want to listen to him talk about snowmachines and huskies and hockey for hours and hours and hours. When we met him in St. Louis the weekend of Palin’s announcement as VP, we couldn’t even talk, we just kind of giggled and stared and the only thought in our head was TODD. TODD. Oh, it was stupefying…and it...