Transcript

Jason Savage · Newsradio WGAN

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Thursday. So that means it's time to talk
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to Jason Savage, executive director of The Maine Republican
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Party, who joins us at this time every Thursday, and he's here
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again. Jason, how are things?
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Good morning, Matt. Unlike our counterparts in the
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Democratic Party, it's a pleasure to talk to the media.
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You're of course alluding to the fact they just had their party
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convention. And unlike the rather open door
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that you guys had, they decided to close the door to certain
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journalists that they didn't like so that it couldn't be
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covered. Which didn't stop anybody, by
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the way, from getting the footage and the pictures and
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everything else from inside, which makes me laugh a little
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bit. But what did you, what did you
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think of their convention? Jason Savage, since you.
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Know I that was the most the most striking thing was that
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even a lot of the regular report of the regular like mainstream
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legacy liberal media, they didn't really cover it and
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couldn't have couldn't have been good for them at the whole you
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know, one of the big points of the convention is actually to
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highlight your candidates and they seem to her hiding instead
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of highlighting their candidates.
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So I guess my take away was didn't didn't seem like all that
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enthusiastic of a group, didn't seem that big, looked rather
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kind of dark and unfun. But I guess that's kind of like
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the Democrat Party these days. So when you were like watching
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the dynamic inside that room, you know, with this is right off
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the off the decision by Janet Mills that she's, you know,
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ultimately going to be taking a pass on this race.
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You know, you're looking at that weird dynamic that's inside
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there. What what, what do you make of
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that tension? I mean, she hasn't endorsed him,
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right? She hasn't endorsed him.
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Clearly there's an antipathy there.
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I think there's a resentment there.
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And, and honestly, for once, I actually sympathize with her or
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I I sort of understand her, you know, sort of her feelings on
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that, right? It's like, you know, look at all
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the things I did for you people. I basically govern like a
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progressive this whole time to make you all happy.
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And you threw me in the trash bin.
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Like, you know, I'd be pretty sore about it too, right?
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Do you think it's like, go ahead.
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It's. It's like, it's like she let
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them hijack her administration and got nothing.
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You know, I got and got nothing for it.
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You know, I, I let you all hijack my, my administration and
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all I got was to give Tim Walz this stupid T-shirt.
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Well, I could bring up Tim Walz and maybe I will in a second
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here, but but I guess my, my question was, do you think that
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there's any sort of enduring harm that that's all going to do
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to them? I mean, I feel like I was
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reading some letters to the editor in like the Press Herald
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and whatnot from, from former Mills supporters and whatnot.
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And you can, you can almost tell that they're pretty, they're
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pretty sore about it too. And that, you know, there's a
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belief in a lot of circles in the Democratic Party that Grand
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Platner is going to self destruct and that he's actually
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a flawed and terrible candidate and that Susan Collins is going
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to eat him for lunch and all that.
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I mean, I, you know, I'd be cautious about getting too
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triumphant about that. But the point is that they're
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doubting him, they're worried about him, and they're angry
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about how this interloper walked in and just like, smacked around
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a two term governor. Do you think there's any ill
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will there or problem that that creates?
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I think there I think there is. Are there red flags with this
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Platiner guy? Yeah.
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Yeah, look at at it this way. This is how I look at it because
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I was, I was involved, you know, in different ways in the Le Page
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administration to Governor State for eight years.
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Whether you do it well or poorly is an incredible amount of work,
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you know, and it takes a lot of people.
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And I'm sure that in the Mills administration, a large number
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of those people were the same people who are in that that
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convention room or whatever it was.
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And, you know, there, there are people in the party that have
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done the work to get her there. And they think they did a pretty
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good job. And even the people who said
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they weren't voting for Janet Mills thought, you know, the
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progressives, they said they, they thought she did a pretty
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good job. So there has to be some
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resentment. I don't know that you'll see it
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bubble to the surface and become a major, major thing in the
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election, but it will exist in the hearts of the people who
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hold it no matter what. And there's no way for Graham
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Platner and his team to to fix that.
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I mean, the other thing they have is, you know, as much as
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Platner has kind of taken the Democrat base by storm, they
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don't, I don't believe that they have the roots, you know, like,
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like the mill side of the the party did where they know
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somebody in every town. They can make a phone call, get
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something done. I mean, the Platiner people are,
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are New York and DC, you know, media people who just figured
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out how to create a sort of weird fake celebrity with all
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kinds of unfortunate problems. And, and it worked because
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Democrats are doing what Republicans were doing in
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looking for people they think are new, fresh and authentic.
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Just so happens that they picked a really, really bad one this
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time around. So you mentioned Tim Walls.
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I don't want to spend very much time on him because I don't
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think he deserves it. But what did you think about
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that being your keynote speaker? I mean, that's the dude you're
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featuring at the Democratic coming out party here.
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I mean, that's an interesting choice.
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To me, the the fraud father and the fraud mother in the same
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room, yeah. I mean, it was like either
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extremely tone deaf or nobody else was willing to come and and
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run the gauntlet of being on stage with with Janet Mills with
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all the fraud allegations and Graham Plattner with, you know,
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the Nazi tattoo and other assorted problems.
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I mean, it would be quite a challenge, I would imagine if
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somebody who's had to try to, you know, get keynote speakers
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in for conventions for quite a while now.
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When you when the top of your ticket is looking that beat up
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and and and flawed it, it gets really hard to get somebody to
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come in. It is indeed, this is also a
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time to they featured them obviously at the convention.
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But, you know, afterwards, earlier this week, they also
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featured them, you know, in some media debates here the the
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Democrats that are running for governor are, are now, you know,
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sort of more prominently facing off against each other in some
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of these forums and conversations and whatnot.
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I had an opportunity for once to actually TuneIn and watch at
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least some of it. I'm not sure if you did as well.
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But if so, did you have any thoughts on what our friends on
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the left are are saying about their candidacies and and and
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what they would do as governor? I think that the big take away
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for listeners is on the Democrat side, every single one of the
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candidates is is pledging to just double down on the
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destructive policies that have gotten us in the mess we're in
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now. And I think when I would look at
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the candidates themselves, what I see, you know, with Troy
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Jackson kind of fake campaigning with mom Donnie by putting
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himself in images you got, you know, Shanna, Shanna Bello is
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hugging Graham Plattner every chance she gets.
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She gets in front of a camera. They are they are taking them
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very most extreme tact they can because that's they realize now
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after the Platinum Mills situation, they're only going to
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get nominated if, you know, they're over over a huddled with
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Stalin on the left. You know, that far over there.
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It's the only way it's going to work.
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So it's it's a sad, sad race to the left to represent working
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people in Maine who do not exist politically on the left there.
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You know, the people who are getting up every day and making
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the state of Maine work. They're going to work.
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They're doing the things that have to get done.
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They are not radical leftist like Zoran Mamdani and Shanna
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Bellows and Troy Jackson. But it's almost like they're
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auditioning for for a people that that they imagine exist and
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and don't. And we'll see how it goes.
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But I think our field, you know, is putting real solutions out
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there and really addressing the issues that matter, while the
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Democrats are just, you know, they're acting like court
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jesters, you know? One of the other things, too, is
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just this weird obsession with Donald Trump.
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I mean, they've clearly, they've clearly come to the conclusion
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that the thing that they need to do this year is just mention his
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name as much as possible because they perceive this is going to
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be a bad year for Republicans because of him being in the
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White House. Just, you know, that it's like
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conventional wisdom on steroids, right?
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But it's just. It's just.
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That Donald Trump doesn't lower people's electricity bills and
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help? Well, yeah.
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I mean, that's where I was going to go with this.
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It's like it just highlights to me like the complete bankruptcy
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of of the agendas that they're talking about.
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I mean, they've been in charge for eight years.
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They've on everything they've wanted and everything's gone
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pretty crappy. So you're going to try to tell
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me that this time is different than like, you know, if you vote
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for me again, I'll I'll fix it this time.
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And they're just trying to absolve themselves of
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responsibility by saying it's all his fault and he's only been
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there for a year and a half. I mean it's.
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Under, under Democrats, if, if I can be so, so bold as to say
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under Democrats, everything in Maine has gone to hell and they
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don't care about working people in the state of Maine.
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It's that simple. Jason Savage, before I let you
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go, I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about, of course,
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the Republican side of the aisle.
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Since we've been sitting here talking about Democrats the
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whole time. You know, we're now in the
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homestretch for the primary for the for the governor's race.
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Obviously, Susan Collins is now already in a, in a, in a general
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election contest against Graham Plattner.
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And all the money and commercials and stuff are
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pouring in. Certainly every time I watch a
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baseball game, I find that out. Your impression of where you
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stand right now, how do you feel?
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That's that's my that's my vibe check question for you right
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now. How do you feel about the year
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as it stands today? I feel cautiously optimistic and
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extremely tired because I we've never really had everything hit
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this speed this early. This is, you know, unprecedented
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to have everything kind of go off the way it has and so much
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happening so early. I feel a lot of energy on our
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side, just an incredible amount of energy.
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The you know, just this morning between 5:30 and when we get on
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here, I've got 4 emails from new people looking to do something
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to help. It feels really good in all all
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those regards. But it is a midterm, and so I
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have to maintain some some caution because when your party
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is in power, these midterm elections can get very, very
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dicey. So everybody's going to work.
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Everybody's going to bust your butt.
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We're launching a new program doing some promotion on it
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called the Neighborhood Navigator Program.
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It's to help people win elections in their towns.
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And that will help all the way up the ballot.
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So go to themaingop.com to sign up for that.
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I feel pretty good, but there's still a long way to go and a lot
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of work left to do. Indeed there is, and we're going
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to have to save some of those conversations for the future
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because we're out of time now, sadly.
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Jason, appreciate it as always. And we'll talk again next
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Thursday.