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Eye On Politics · Newsradio WGAN

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  This time, once again for our Eye on Politics team to join us
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  and go over what's happening in the world of politics.
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  And that's going to be happening to us again right now.
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  So let's go to our Eye on Politics team right now.
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  Gentlemen, how are you this morning?
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  Gentlemen, how are you doing? Great.
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  I I am in mourning. I am in mourning, Matt.
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  Why? Why are you in mourning?
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  The great John Sterling, the voice of New York Yankee
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  baseball and a true entertainer, has has gone to that great
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  Cooper's town in the sky. That is very.
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  Age of 80. Seven, that is very sad, but it
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  is a Yankee broadcaster, so I'll just mark my sadness and then
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  move on. How about that, just to make
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  sure everybody's aware, we, you know, send our best wishes to BJ
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  Mccollister, who's not with us right now.
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  We have Keith Mastrich in for BJ for the next few weeks.
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  So it's a pleasure to have you, Keith.
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  Great time to join us, by the way, because since last we
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  spoke, we have the end of the Janet Mills for Senate campaign,
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  which is something that we had been sort of speculating on the
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  program about for a while. Would this happen, would it not
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  happen, why is it happening, etcetera.
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  I'm going to get you first bite at the apple here Keith to
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  diagnose the mills for Senate campaign that was and tell me
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  what went wrong. How come it didn't really work.
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  How come it didn't catch fire? And where do we go now?
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  Well, I. Think it's reflective of what's
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  happening around the country where there's a real debate in
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  the Democratic Party about which direction to go sort of youth
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  and vim and vigor or establishment politicians.
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  And I think here in, in, in Maine, it was pretty clear that
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  it, that, that Democrats who are likely to vote in the primary
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  were leaning towards platinum. And I, I think she, she, she,
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  she, look, she had a great career.
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  She's done tremendous things. People may know her a deep set
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  of gratitude, but I think I think the the primary voters
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  were leaning in, in One Direction and I think she saw
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  the writing on the wall and decided to decided to step away
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  and look, we're we're in for now an intense 6 month campaign here
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  between Susan Collins and Graham Plattner.
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  Lot of money is going to be spent, a lot of months going to
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  be slung, put on your seatbelts because it's going to be a wild
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  ride. It will indeed.
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  Before I go to Eric, though, can I ask a follow up about that?
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  Why is it that the vim and vigor and youth and, you know, fresh
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  and new and all that stuff is in vogue right now in the
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  Democratic Party? You know, you mentioned that
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  Janet Mills did some amazing things and has a record to be
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  proud of and all that stuff. You know, in the old days, that
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  would have been something that would have bought you an awful
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  lot of currency in a political race.
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  You know, it would have been, look, this is somebody that's
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  got results, they've done stuff, they're effective, they win.
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  Let's keep going, baby. Let's do it more.
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  But it's quite the opposite now. What happened?
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  Why? I don't think there's AI think
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  there's AI think there's a lot of deep seated anger and
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  frustration at the at the at the establishment.
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  And I think that plays across things.
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  And there's a deep, deep desire for change.
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  And it's not just Maine where we've seen that.
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  And obviously we saw it in New York City.
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  We've seen it in other places around the country.
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  There's there's, there's similar events playing out in primaries
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  around the country. Michigan, you know, is maybe the
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  best example of that. Not across the board.
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  Obviously people like Sherrod Brown and Roy Cooper in, in
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  North Carolina, Sherrod in, in Ohio are, are sort of the
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  opposite of that. And, and, and we'll see.
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  But it's, it's there definitely is a desire for change amongst
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  of of a part of the party base. And I think that's why Plattner
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  has prevailed here. All right, Eric Lusk, it is your
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  turn. We've talked about this for
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  several weeks, and speculation has been for a while that maybe
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  the time was coming where she would make this choice.
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  She made it. Tell me what happened.
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  I'm not going to break my arm patting myself on the on the
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  back here. But when she vetoed the 1 1/2 or
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  two year ban on the new data center in Jay Main, I figured
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  out that was for the most part her admitting that she was not
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  going to be sticking around in the campaign against Plattner,
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  against Graham Plattner, the the great oysterman to beat
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  oysterman. And when you go and break with
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  what has become a lockstep mindset among the progressives,
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  it's no longer the liberals, it's the progressives now in the
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  Democrat Party who were running the show.
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  Then all of a sudden, she gave herself something where she
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  would have a loot. She'd be on the losing side of
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  an issue in a debate. And clearly she wasn't going to
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  be going down that road unless she planned on stepping out of
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  the campaign. I have certainly spoken with
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  people who are with the Democrat Party in the great state of
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  Maine. And the question for them simply
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  was a when question. And if you looked at the
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  fundraising and enthusiasm for Janet Mills, it wasn't there.
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  I come back to the issue of all the things that she
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  accomplished, did she bring down health insurance premiums by
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  moving small business companies into the individual health
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  insurance market? No, she did.
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  Did not. Was she able to bring down the
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  cost of electricity in the state of Maine?
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  No, she could not. Was she able to do anything to
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  improve education in the state of Maine?
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  No, she could not, despite increasing the size of the state
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  budget at twice the rate of inflation over a period of eight
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  years. So she didn't have a lot to run
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  on in terms of measurable positive results that people
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  could look to and say, yes, Maine is a great place to
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  educate my kids. Maine is a great place to move
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  my business. What was she going to run on?
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  Now the question is, based on what she did and the people who
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  are running to replace her as the governor on the Democrat
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  side of the aisle, Those people have all been intrinsic to the
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  record of the Mills administration.
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  What are the successes that they're going to be able to
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  point to to which they were a party?
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  Was it shutting down small business Doctor Shaw during the
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  national freak out over the virus?
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  So it's going to be interesting to see how the Republican
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  gubernatorial candidate goes to pin the Mills record on the
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  people who are looking to succeed her on the Democrat side
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  of the aisle. Before we get to those
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  gubernatorial contests that you're mentioning, Eric, I do
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  want to spend just one more minute on on this whole this
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  U.S. Senate race topic here for a
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  minute now, the Mills is gone. I know Keith kind of alluded to
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  what's ahead here a bit, but I'd love for you to preview what you
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  see in the Platinum versus Collins race specifically.
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  I mean, is there an inside favorite?
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  Do you think that this is likely to turn in One Direction or
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  another? I'm looking at the, you know,
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  the Poly markets of the world, the betting, the betting odds
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  and they're betting right now, I think like 51% on a, on a Senate
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  takeover for the Democrats and that would be highly predicated
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  on Maine falling. So do you agree with that,
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  Keith? Do you think that that is a
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  likely occurrence? Who is the inside favorite right
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  now? How do you handicap this race?
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  Well, I think both parties know that that, that however, for
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  them to prevail, they have to win Maine.
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  The Republicans know that they have to maintain Maine to keep a
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  majority. And the Democrats know that they
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  probably can't get a majority without winning in Maine.
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  So it is a, it is a critical, critical state.
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  There is there is high motivation on the Democratic
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  side to turn out in this election.
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  And I think that we are likely to see, you know, a very, very
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  strong wave of very motivated Democratic voters to do that.
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  I think that's where the race starts.
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  And I think that gives Plattner an advantage from the outset
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  here because of that intensity of of of of the desire for
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  Democrats to change and send a message to the Trump
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  administration. And I think that's going to be a
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  very, very overwhelming thing. He is an incredibly talented
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  politician with a very, very powerful message.
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  And I think it's one that's resonating across the the the
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  state. And if he can, if he can lead
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  that out of the base and into the unenrolled voters in the
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  state, he's got a really good chance of of winning this.
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  But it is going to be an intense fight.
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  There's no doubt about that. I don't think there's any doubt
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  about that either. I would agree.
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  Eric Lusk, what do you think about what you see in the
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  Platner versus Collins race? What is the track record Graham
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  Platner has of any measurable success beyond saying we want to
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  tax people more, I hate Trump, et cetera, et cetera?
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  Is he going to go for packing the Supreme Court?
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  Is he going to go for getting rid of the filibuster so they
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  can push through in the US Senate statehood for Washington,
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  DC and Puerto Rico? Is he going to continue to say
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  that the military is full of Nazis and that's why he got a
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  tattoo, but only the military and police should be allowed to
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  have firearms? What is he going to say about
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  supporting Bath Iron Works and various military industrial
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  industry that is here in the great state of Maine?
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  I, I, I, I don't think it's going to be an easy path for
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  Graham Plattner and the progressives to run around
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  saying what you really need are more taxes.
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  What you really need are more progressive policies and women.
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  Sorry boys in the girls locker room, because this is all going
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  to be fair game the second we get to the general between
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  general election between Susan Collins and Graham Plattner.
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  All right, so let's go where Eric was kind of drifting
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  towards just a couple minutes ago.
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  And the gubernatorial contest. It's a perfect time to bring it
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  up because there is now debates. Democrats just debated.
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  Republicans, of course, also just debated.
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  Debates everywhere. Everyone debates everywhere.
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  And I'm looking at my calendar and we got like a month, We got
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  like a month before the primary is scheduled to ultimately be
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  held. So as we look right now at the
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  Republican and the Democratic primaries for governor of Maine,
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  Keith, I'm going to go to you first.
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  What do you think you see over there?
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  Are there people that are emerging in the front?
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  Do you have a prediction this far out maybe even to make?
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  What say you? I, I, let's focus on the
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  Democratic side where I spend most my time and attention and
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  paying and paying attention. No one's really broken out yet.
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  5 in my mind, very, very strong candidates, all who could be the
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  chief executive of the state of Maine, All are running on strong
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  messages that they need to focus and this and the state
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  government needs to focus on affordability issues for
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  Mainers. I think they have strong
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  messages on housing. I think they have strong
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  messages on progressive taxation.
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  I think they have strong messages on restoring
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  healthcare. Those are the issues that
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  Mainers are focused on the and, and I think that that whoever
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  wins this case, this, this election is going to be well
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  poised to, to take on the Republican and probably an
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  independent here. We know as well and have a
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  strong message in terms of, of what they can, of what they, of
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  what they can do. But I don't have a prediction.
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  I don't have a prediction on either side of the, the, the
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  ballot. It's going to be interesting.
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  And of course, the whole rank choice phenomenon is going to
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  make it really interesting to figure out how to do this.
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  Pretty hard to handicap either of these races.
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  It is indeed. Before I go back to Eric though,
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  just a quick follow up here. You mentioned sort of like the
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  solutions they have on these issues.
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  Do you think that there is any vulnerability inside the
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  Democratic Party to generally speaking, the feeling in Maine
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  voters right now? I mean, I know that we have this
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  sort of anti Trump effect nationally, but here locally
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  those right track, wrong track numbers have been pretty
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  consistently crummy for a while. And every metric I can think of
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  has kind of gone in an upside down direction for the last
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  several years. And you can't escape the fact
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  that the Democrats have been in charge this whole time.
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  So is that going to be a liability for them or do they
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  have good answers for it? It's messy.
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  We've got, you know, high negative ratings on Susan
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  Collins in the race too. So there's a lot of negativity
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  on both parties that I think is playing out there in the in the
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  race. I do think the Democrats have
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  focused on a positive message and they have focused on trying
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  to think about the solutions that they will bring.
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  They have not attacked each other and they have focused on
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  what they can do for the people in the state of Maine to do
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  that. And I think that will matter in
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  this race. And over to you, Eric Lusk, your
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  thoughts on the same question. You have a group of Democrats
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  running to replace Janet Mills, who and most of them work for
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  Janet Mills. At one point or another, they
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  had control of the state government.
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  They had both chambers in the Legislature.
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  And they're going to say, what about improving the
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  affordability issue after in the state of Maine, the Mills
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  administration and the people that you see running to replace
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  her helped the cost of health insurance premiums go to the
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  moon, electricity cost went to the moon.
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  Educational outcomes became poor.
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  And you have a very hostile environment for somebody coming
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  out of college looking to make a living and be able to pay to
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  live in Maine. How is it that now all of a
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  sudden these people are paying attention to affordability?
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  There was an article recently that came out with cities where
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  you might want to go if you're coming out of college that are
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  affordable and where you can make a decent buck.
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  The best city in the country right now is Birmingham, AL #2
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  was Tampa, FL. How is it that this group of
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  people is going to be able to come up with something to
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  attract kids coming out of college and get them to want to
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  stay? I, I, I think the affordability
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  issue is in many regards a hand grenade that's going to go off
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  in their own faces because they made the hand grenade.
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  Over on the Republican side of the aisle, you have someone who
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  says he is leading all of the other candidates and it's
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  decided he's not going to show up at the debate.
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  Donald Trump, you may recall, took a similar route in 2016
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  where he held some kind of event in metro Cleveland, I think it
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  was, while the other candidates running for the presidential
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  nomination on the Republican side actually had the debate.
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  Can Bobby Charles pull off that move?
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  I'm not as inclined to think he's got the showmanship to be
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  able to accomplish it. And as of this moment, I think
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  we're still seeing on the Republican side an easier road
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  to say. I'm not going to give you more
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  of what the Mills administration gave you, more of what those
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  people who are running to replace her on the Democrat side
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  are going to give you and gave you.
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  And I think we're still seeing how the leadership for the
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  nomination is going to shake out.
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  And as as we just heard, you do have ranked choice voting and
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  the option for an independent to go vote in the primary of a
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  Republican or the Democrat side if they so choose.
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  We haven't been here before. All right.
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  In the limited time we have left here, gentlemen, I want to turn
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  our attention to the national scene.
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  Obviously, we have a lot of stuff going on recently in the
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  whole Iran standoff. In the last couple days alone,
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  you've had an announcement by the Trump administration that
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  they are reopening the straight and guiding ships through it.
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  You just had basically a reversal on that yesterday while
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  also saying that basically the war is over and we're
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  negotiating a peace. So I don't even know what to
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  think about any of this stuff right now.
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  But I'd love to get your thoughts on where we are with
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  this situation and how it may indeed affect all the things we
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  are already been talking about today, those elections, those
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  midterms, etcetera. Keith, you're our first up.
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  Total disaster going on, no plan on how to win this war.
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  Not sure why we got into it to to to start, all the things that
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  were supposed to be the reasons to do it seem to have come off
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  the table. close the straight, open the straight.
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  They can't even have an effective policy in place for
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  more than than two days. Gas prices going up, fertilizer
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  prices going up. This is going to be a huge issue
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  in the election because the downstream issues of affecting
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  supply chain and inflationary pressures and other costs are
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  going to be real and people are going to be very, very focused
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  on it. And that $4.50 a gallon gas is
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  going to be right in front of people's eyes and right in front
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  of their faces when they start to make their election
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  decisions. And I, I think it's going to be
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  a huge issue in this, this, this campaign, the war itself and the
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  unnecessary, unnecessaryness of the war and then the impact that
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  really it has on, on cost of living.
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  Over to you, Eric Lusk, your thoughts on where we are with
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  the situation in Iran and of course, the effect that it will
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  have on the upcoming election. The Trump administration is
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  following through on what every president over the last 47
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  years, Democrat or Republican, has said should be the policy
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  going forward. Namely, Iran cannot have a
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  nuclear bomb. Iran can shoot a ballistic
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  missile 2500 miles. That'll get you to Berlin,
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  That'll get you to Rome if you're setting up your launchers
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  there in Iran. And why anybody thinks they're
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  going to stop at 2500 miles is a mystery to me.
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  Pretty soon, if they're allowed to continue, the Iranians will
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  be able to reach London, They'll be able to hit Paris.
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  If you want that sort of thing, then run around and pretend that
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  there is no point, There is no purpose to the military
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  operations we're seeing in the Persian Gulf right now.
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  The Iranians are in a tight spot.
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  They're running out of storage of for more oil coming out of
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  the ground. They need to find places to put
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  it or to get it on boats and get it out of the Persian Gulf, or
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  they're going to have to begin shutting in their production,
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  which is a real disaster for them and they're going broke
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  very quickly. So the the, the embargo on ships
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  coming out of the Persian Gulf that's being run by the US Navy
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  is having the desired effect. And fairly quickly you're
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  probably going to see the Iranians have to come to the
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  table. And that's the news you're going
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  to see in the stock markets opening up today that the
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  Iranians want to come to the table all.
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  Right. Unfortunately, gentlemen, that
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  is where we're going to have to end because we are out of time
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  on this fine Wednesday morning. Appreciate it as always.
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  Thanks both to you and we will talk to both of you again next
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  week. Thanks a lot guys.