Transcript

Laurel Libby · Newsradio WGAN

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Why don't we welcome onto the program Representative Laurel
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Libby, who is joining us now, and she's with us every couple
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weeks to talk over what's happening in the world of Maine
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politics. Laurel, how are things?
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Good morning. Thanks so much for having me.
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Hey, first, let me ask you this question.
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Do you feel unburdened by what was and now that you don't
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really have to worry about being too much of A lawmaker anymore
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now that the session's over, you're going to be moving on
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obviously to the the lead main thing entirely at this point.
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And that's that's a good thing, I think for the state overall.
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But are you going to miss it? Are you going to miss it?
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You know Matt, I am a glutton for punishment, served in the
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minority now 3 terms and I am going to miss it very much.
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I have loved representing my district, but I also know you're
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right. I am doing the right thing for
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for Maine, for our family, for all concerned to advance freedom
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and liberty and conservative values in our state by founding
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and leading Lead Maine. And of course, folks can learn
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more at leadmaine.com and join us on that mission.
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That's what we call a little promotion there.
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So, you know, I think maybe now is the perfect time to turn a
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lot of our conversations towards the more political because with
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the legislature now out of session and with campaigns in
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the future, there's a lot to go over.
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I was just listening to Jason Taylor's update, of course,
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talking about the Democratic debates that are now taking
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place. Those are starting to to happen
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and they're starting to be covered.
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And, you know, I'm checking them out.
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I'm sure you are as well. Do you have a take away from
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what you heard or have heard thus far from the Democrats in
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these conversations they're having with each other?
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Any big things that stand out to you?
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You know, policies, positions, any of the people even standing
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out to? What do you think about all
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this? Yeah.
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I mean, they they all seem pretty much an iteration of the
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same thing. And that is they're all
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desperate to escape from the fact that Democrats have had the
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majority in both chambers and the governor's seat for the last
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eight years. And so as they talk about
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anything and everything that's going wrong in the state, they
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try to blame it all on Trump. You can't blame it all on Trump
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because it is literally their fault.
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You have Troy Jackson, you know, he sticks out because he was
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Senate President. He oversaw much of the
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destruction we've seen in our state for those six of those
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eight years until he termed out. And so if you're talking about
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what needs to be fixed in our state, a lot of it is his fault.
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And that's of course, true of many of them.
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And I mean, I, I was talking about a version of this a little
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bit earlier in the program because I had cause to quickly
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take a look at the California gubernatorial debate that they
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were having, which is like Maine on steroids, right?
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It's just like, it's like longer that they've been in control of
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everything. And their policies have been
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even wackier in a lot of respects, although Maine's
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making a run for the money. But what was interesting to me
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was to listen to the Democrats that were in that primary field,
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you know, talking about the broken things in the state and
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then prescribing all the all the ways they want to fix them.
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You know, housing is a perfect one.
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I heard from many of them on. And I just, I'm sitting there
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slack jawed listening to this. Just like, do you guys have no
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self-awareness that you have been in control for 15 years
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over there and you have repeatedly every single year
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said, hey, this is a problem and here's how we're going to fix
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it. And then you try to fix it with
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the thing you say and it makes it worse.
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And then we're right back to the starting point again the next
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time we talk about it the following year.
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That's taking place here in Maine and it doesn't escape my
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notice. Well, can I can I just guess
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though that many of the solutions that were proposed in
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that debate and of course, I hope you had popcorn or, or
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something enjoyable as I. Can only make it through 5
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minutes Laurel I believe. It was hard.
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I mean, I have to assume that the answer to everything is as
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usual as it is here in Maine. If you're talking to a Democrat,
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money, right? No policy changes, none of the
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policies that have been actively causing destruction in
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California or in Maine. The answer from a Democrat from
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either state is always well, we just need to throw more money at
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it. So we need to, of course, take
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more money from the taxpayer in order to tackle this issue.
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It couldn't possibly be that their policies are absolutely
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destructive and are destroying both of our states.
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Yeah, I think that's that's entirely right.
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You know, as you see those candidates, though, I mean, you
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know, as you consider who might end up emerging out of it for
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the fall campaign, is anybody standing out to you?
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I mean, you you mentioned that they're very much similar to
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each other. And I think that's a very
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astute, you know, analysis of it.
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I mean, the policy wise, there really isn't a lot of
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disagreement there. But you do have, I guess,
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personality differences here. Does it strike you as one of
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them, as getting a little bit more traction than the others?
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You know, I think that when Nirav Shah entered the race,
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everyone said, oh, that's interesting.
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Everyone on the right, we of course have this memory of Nirav
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Shah being part of being a large part of restricting our freedom
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during COVID and the government response to it.
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The Democrat memory of that time by and large across the state is
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remember they printed candy bars with his face on it.
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And shall we trust he brings warm fuzzy feelings to that side
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of the aisle. And I think that we're, we're
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seeing that play out in real time.
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When he jumped in, I said, and folks poo pooed me.
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I said, I think Neeraf Shah comes out of this primary
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because potentially of rank choice vote, right?
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Even if they voted for somebody else's number one, Neeraf Shah
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gets all of #2 as long as hangs in there long enough to, to make
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it through that to, to the ranking, then I think Nirav Shah
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brings it in. And I am, I'm standing by that
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not because he's got amazing policies.
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I think he's a little bit of a dark horse.
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And aside from what we know of him from COVID, he's pretty
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similar to the others and doesn't really get out there
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with his stances. I thought it was interesting.
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He recently endorsed, of course, our favorite communist, maybe
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Nazi Graham Plattner, but he waited to do so until Janet
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Mills had dropped out of the race.
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That's not an endorsement. That's an acknowledgement that
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he's the the, you know, supposed candidate with the second
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candidate so far behind. So he doesn't really go out on a
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limb. He doesn't really talk a whole
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lot about what he'll actually do.
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But I think he gives enough Democrats the warm fuzzies that
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he just might be the the candidate that moves forward,
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which would not be what's supposed to happen because I
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think Hannah Pingree is the chosen one.
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And then you've got Shanna Bellows in a pretty good
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position where she's not maybe supposed to be.
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It's an interesting race. It is indeed.
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You know, you mentioned Hannah Pingree being the chosen 1 and
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that is a little bit of conventional wisdom that has
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come from the fact that she was a member of the Mills
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administration and a very prominent member of the Mills
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administration for a long time. And the perception has been that
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Janet Mills, you know, sort of tapped her on the shoulder and
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said, you're the heir apparent and, like, it's pointing in her
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direction. The fact that she doesn't seem
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to be gaining much traction is an almost hilarious subtext, I
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think, to the whole Janet Mills experience, right with her
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dropping out of that race, she's losing to Graham Plattner by 30
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something points. And she's, by the way, going to
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continue to do that because she's still going to be on the
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ballot, which is, oh, it's. Going to be so embarrassing.
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Kind of itself a funny thing, yeah.
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But it's just it strikes me that the Democratic Party even, you
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know, not just you and me, but the Democratic Party even has
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been looking at the Janet Mills time in office, her legacy,
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etcetera, and kind of saying no thanks not just to her but also
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her chosen successor perhaps as well.
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It's a pretty sharp rebuke, I would say, for what she has
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meant to main politics for now eight years.
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Yeah, it is. You know, with the turn of
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events, I think that, you know, Mills Legacy is a very different
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one than it would have been if she had not run for Senate.
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I think she would have gone out kind of at the top of her game
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on that side of things. And and now it's just a little
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bit of a laughing stock. So does that reflect on Hannah
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Pingree maybe. You know, I think if Mills came
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out and endorsed, it certainly wouldn't help.
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No, it wouldn't. And I mean, like, we'll see how
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she does. I mean, who knows, maybe she
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wins. But you know, I was kind of
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expecting her to rise to the top because I'm thinking through the
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logic and maybe I'm just applying too much thought to
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this, I guess. But if I'm a Democrat and I'm
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looking at that field, if I want ultra progressive politics, if I
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want ultra progressive policies, I want to also win, don't I?
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And I can't for the life of me think that Shanna Bellows is
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anybody's choice and say, oh, that's an electable candidate.
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Is Shanna Bellows right and near of Shaw.
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I mean, I think there's obviously we can go into a very
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long conversation about all all of his weaknesses.
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Troy Jackson has been kind of a clown for a really long time.
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So struck me as kind of obvious that the Democrats should just
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choose the progressive Pingree who had the blessing of the
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governor's office. I mean, it just kind of made
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sense. And yet it just doesn't.
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I'm not showing up in any of the polls.
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You don't really hear any, any buzz about her.
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I mean, she's raising plenty of money, but I don't know.
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It just doesn't seem to be working very much.
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And I think that means something.
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I think that means something about Mills and that time in
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office and how people view it. Yeah, it, it definitely does.
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She's also running a pretty Dang boring campaign.
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I mean, there's not much going on there.
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There's no It's a pretty. Conventional politician campaign
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too, I have to say. Right.
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Very boring if. You're a nepo baby.
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That's a bad thing to do. You should, you should try to be
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a change agent, not a not a, not a career politician.
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Yeah. Yeah.
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And that's really the role that she has in this.
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She's kind of the career politician and and when you run
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a really boring campaign on top of that, you're in hard
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position. You know, I don't know that I
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wouldn't say that primary voters are, you know, necessarily known
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for voting based on electability, Matt.
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And so is anyone thinking further than the primary on
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either side? I'm not sure.
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Yeah, you're right. I know they don't, but I don't
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get it. Like, I mean, I, you know, when
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you usually you have a choice between like electability and
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ideology, right? Like the electable 1 is the
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squishy moderate who you don't really want to support and you
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want to really vote for the true believer whatever.
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But the Democrats, they're all true.
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Believers. They're all out there, so why
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not go for the one that's going to do everything you want and
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might be somewhat electable? I don't know.
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Just I'm talking, you know, I'm just, I'm, I'm, I'm failing to
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understand the logic of what I'm seeing over there.
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But then again, I'm not a Democrat for a reason I suppose,
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so who knows? You know, maybe, maybe it'll get
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more interesting in the next month or so, but the timeline is
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short to jazz up that campaign. It is indeed.
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Well, maybe next time we talk, we'll be talking a little bit
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about the end of the Republican primary as well.
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But we're out of time now, so we have to stop there.
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Appreciate you being with us as always, Laurel, and we will talk
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again very soon.