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Rep. Laurel Libby · Newsradio WGAN

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  Wednesday morning at this time, every Wednesday or every few
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  Wednesdays at least, we get an opportunity to speak with
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  Representative Laura Libby who is joining us now, talk over all
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  things, main politics. How are things this morning,
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  Laurel? Oh, things are are great here
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  Matt, but golly, there's so much going on I don't even know where
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  to start. Golly indeed, golly indeed.
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  I was very much struggling out of the outset this morning to
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  find a way to, in a PG kind of environment, describe the latest
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  Grand Platinum isms. Good luck, I know.
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  And it was. I failed.
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  I think I definitely failed, but I gave it a good old college
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  try. The latest scandal, of course,
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  comes down to his his deleted account on Reddit, which, you
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  know, probably was wise of him to be deleting.
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  But as we know, the Internet is forever.
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  So you can't always really hide a lot of that stuff.
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  And unearthed posts from both I think 2017 and 2021 have raised
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  renewed concerns about the guy's temperament, judgments, general
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  weirdness, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
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  We are now though in Laurel, the actual general election, let's
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  just be honest, right the primaries overs and it was over
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  as soon as Janet Mills dropped out.
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  So you are looking at Platner versus Collins.
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  My question for you is this latest thing that just came out
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  and all the things that undoubtedly will be following
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  it, how much will they matter? You know, in the in the modern
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  era of politics, does scandal like this affect anybody anymore
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  or is he ultimately at this point, have voters decided?
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  I know he's weird. I know he's, you know, different
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  and troubling and problematic or whatever.
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  But I don't care. I have other things that I'm
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  voting on. What do you think?
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  What's your read on it? Yeah, I certainly it doesn't
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  matter for the extreme left. The extreme left adores him and
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  refuses to consider that he may be, as you say, unstable and
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  unfit, but the rest of the electorate is largely sane.
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  Matt, right. And so where the extreme left is
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  still embracing Plattner as their their savior here, I think
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  that Republicans and sane Democrats hopefully will save
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  the day here, win the day and vote for a proven fighter for
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  Maine that is is stable and that you don't hear all of these
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  stories coming out about. So I'm optimistic that sanity
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  will prevail. So so.
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  Your contention is just basically that the Democrats
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  have decided that they don't care, but that the rest of the
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  state, whether it's Republicans, you know, unenrolled, the people
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  that are sort of on the sidelines, kind of, you know,
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  maybe not even paying too much attention to politics right now.
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  They do or will. And by the time they actually
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  have to make a decision on this, this stuff is all going to
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  matter a great deal, essentially, is what you're
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  saying. I think so, and what's more than
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  that, I hope policy matters at some point here too.
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  Oh, wouldn't that be nice? Wouldn't that be nice?
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  I hope policy comes into play here because when you actually
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  listen to Plattner, never mind the fact that many of the issues
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  he's talking about are more drastically affected by state
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  government and what Augusta Democrats have done under
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  Governor Mills over the last eight years.
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  Most of what he talks about is more affected by state.
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  But the fact is his policies that he is openly advocating for
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  are extreme and would drastically if implemented.
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  No, that's the big question too, right?
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  If implemented, would be extraordinarily a terrible
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  detrimental dangerous to our country.
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  They would indeed. No, they, they definitely would.
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  You know, I, I think I mostly agree with what you're saying
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  here. The thing that causes me pause
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  is that we are in an era right now where I think that the
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  public has been almost like, I don't know, like neutralized in,
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  in some way. Like there's so many scandals.
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  There's so much information. I mean, like, if you were to
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  tell me, Laurel asks me a question, Hey, can you just name
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  all of the grand platter scandals?
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  I mean, I'm sure I would come up with like, you know, 50 or 60%
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  of them, but I would be missing things.
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  It's, you know, you almost get overwhelmed by so much.
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  And I think that sometimes that makes people shut down a little
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  bit and they're like, well, look, not my not my favorite
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  dude, but you know, I really don't like Susan Collins or I
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  really don't like Donald Trump. And there's like, other forces
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  at work that they'll be voting based on because they've since
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  given up on voting for like, nobility, you know, it's like.
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  Yeah, we also assume that you know the folks who are listening
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  to you every morning and who are really plugged into politics and
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  paying attention to what's going on.
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  They know most scandals, right? But when you talk to your next
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  door neighbor that's not following me in politics, some
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  folks still, you know, haven't heard of Grand Plattner, don't
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  know what's going on, aren't following and won't be until
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  closer. So I mean, I guess there's
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  multiple questions there, right? How, how well do we get the
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  message out there? How well do we turn out voters?
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  How much do people care? Are they just so having so much
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  information coming at them that it's just too much?
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  Those are all, I think important questions and I don't know.
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  I, I hope, as I said, I hope that sanity prevails.
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  I certainly we working to ensure that sanity prevails because
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  there's a lot at stake. Well.
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  Tell me a little bit about that work because obviously, you
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  know, elections have a lot to do with how people feel and TV ads
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  and all that stuff. But on the ground level, I don't
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  think there's a true appreciation in the audience or
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  people who just follow politics about how much it matters what's
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  done by the people that are in support of various campaigns and
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  political activities, right? I mean, you've made basically
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  your life now doing that kind of thing.
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  So what does that look like on the ground right now and what do
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  you expect to see as the year continues?
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  You know, every kind of talks about social media like it's the
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  be all end all, but that's not the nuts and bolts of campaigns.
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  That's, you know, flash in the pan.
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  Clicks don't mean anything, not like the real work does.
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  And So what does that look like? That looks like folks knocking
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  doors across the state and having actual conversation.
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  That looks like individuals talking to their friends, family
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  and neighbors and ensuring that they turn out.
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  And this year we really have to make sure that low propensity
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  Republican voters turn out. You know, a lot of folks are
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  only paying attention to very high level national politics.
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  And when they see Trump in the White House, they go, OK, I'm
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  all set. You know, there's I don't need
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  to vote this year. There's nothing really big
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  stakes and maybe aren't paying attention to the Senate race to
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  the state legislature. And so making sure that folks
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  know there is actually quite a lot at stake.
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  Our entire state is at stake, not just the Senate race and
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  others. And so, yeah, at Lead Maine, of
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  course, folks can learn more about us at leadmaine.com.
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  At Lead Maine, we're going to be working to to educate Mainers on
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  just what's at stake and then to turn out voters to make sure
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  that folks do show up at the polls this fall.
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  We're speaking with Representative Laura Libby,
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  who's joining us, talking a little bit about what's going on
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  in Maine politics. The other thing I'd like to ask
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  you about while I have a couple minutes here is, you know, you
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  mentioned there's a lot of other things going on.
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  And one of those is the gubernatorial race.
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  We're getting down to less now than three weeks.
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  It is just a few Tuesdays around the corner, and we will finally,
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  mercifully, be able to know who the nominees are for both the
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  Republican and the Democratic primaries.
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  Do you have a sense of what you're hearing on the ground
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  from people right now in terms of especially the Republican
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  side of the race? You know, are people still
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  having a tough, difficult time making up their mind?
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  Are they starting to make that decision?
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  I mean, they have to because we're getting there.
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  But like what's happening out there, you think?
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  Yeah, I think there's two important questions there.
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  One is, are they making up their mind?
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  Are they making up their mind even how they're going to vote,
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  not just who they're going to vote for?
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  But we have ranked choice voting in play here and we've never
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  seen such a big field when voting via ranked choice voting.
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  And so I've certainly heard a fair amount of confusion and
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  questions on that front. And there will be rank choice
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  information forthcoming from lead Main.
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  So stay tuned today. But I think if folks are
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  starting to look at who to vote for, Matt, this is the same
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  thing. You know, folks who are really
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  plugged in, paying attention, they know perhaps who they're
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  going to vote for. But I got a call yesterday from
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  a close friend who said, OK, I'm, I'm starting to try to
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  figure out who I'm voting for. And can you tell me about XY and
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  Z candidates? And really knew nothing besides,
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  you know, here are a couple names of folks running for for
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  governor. And so, yeah, I think that
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  everybody is starting to pay attention.
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  Everyone that knows that there's a primary and starting to make
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  those decisions. I am probably going to go vote
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  this week or next week. I vote early and but I don't see
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  folks turning out in droves to vote early this year.
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  There is still a fair amount of confusion regarding retrace
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  voting. Yeah, there is.
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  Do you have a recommendation? I don't want to spoil anything
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  you're releasing later today, but do you?
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  I've been asked by people, including last night.
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  I was giving a talk last night and it was like it was on the
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  minds of people. They're like, what do you, what
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  do you, what do you do? Like, what do you want to do?
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  Like, what do you think I should do?
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  Should I rank? Should I not rank?
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  Because in the Republican side of the aisle, there's a giant
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  conflict. I think in their heart, which is
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  that they hate rank choice voting.
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  They think it's bad. They think it's evil.
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  And so do I, by the way, if anybody's confused, but it's
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  there. And if you are going to be
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  voting in this race, you know, and you you choose a candidate
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  and that candidate gets knocked out in one of the rounds and you
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  don't rank, then you now basically never existed.
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  You never were there. You have been deleted from the
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  from the election. So my recommendation to people
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  has been actually, as much as I despise it to rank, but I also
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  acknowledge that, you know, if you're so philosophically
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  opposed to it that that that makes the, you know, a lot of
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  the big ick, you know, I don't, I don't blame you for it.
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  Do you have a recommendation for people or do you have a
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  perspective on it at least? I certainly do.
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  You know, I, I've never ranked before when we're looking at the
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  ranked choice races that we've had, you know, not going to vote
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  for Jared Golden. Why would I rank?
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  So it hasn't even been a question in my mind.
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  But there are candidates in the gubernatorial primary that I
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  like, I think would be good for Maine.
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  There are candidates in the gubernatorial primary that I, I
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  do not like and I, I don't think would be good for Maine.
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  So I am, I'm planning to selectively rank.
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  I am planning to rank candidates.
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  Yeah, I'm planning to rank a number of candidates, but not
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  all. And I'll, I'll rank the
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  candidates that I like and think would be good for Maine.
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  And I won't rank the candidates that I, I think would be less
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  good for Maine. So that's how I'm going to go
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  about it. You know, I, I hear folks saying
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  that they're going to just vote for one all the way across.
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  You can. But like you said, that ballot,
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  if that candidate that you vote for all the way across gets does
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  not get enough votes to continue in the race, then your ballot
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  will be exhausted and and move to the side and not counted
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  moving forward. So I do plan to rank for the
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  first time, Matt. You my wow, this is breaking
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  news. Breaking news.
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  Laura Libby will be sort of kind of a little bit ranking for
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  sure. That's a that's a hell of a
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  strategy. Actually.
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  I haven't even thought about partially ranking, but that's
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  it. That's an interesting way of
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  going about it. Unfortunately, we're out of
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  time, so we could break this down more, but alas, we have
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  lost all of our time. So thank you as always,
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  Representative Laura Libby, and we will talk again in a couple
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  weeks. Appreciate it as always.
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  Thanks so much. Have a good. 1.