2012 Scorecard
Submitted by andrew.francis on Wed, 07/25/2012 - 14:34
The recent legislative session has made one thing abundantly clear: elections matter. When Governor Paul LePage won the Maine governorship with a plurality of the votes on Election Day in November, 2010 and Republicans won a small majority in the House and a larger one in the Senate, the political landscape in Maine shifted abruptly.
The new administration and Legislature ushered in a new set of priorities, following a game plan drafted in advance by national right-wing groups and fuelled by the energy and anger of the Tea Party backlash.
LePage and his allies have since gone after Maine’s environmental protections, unions, pensions and workplace laws, immigrants, health care protections and fundamental voting rights.
In almost every issue area, they’ve taken the side of out-of-state corporations over Maine communities, people and small businesses. On several issues, public outcry and grassroots mobilization has halted or reversed LePage’s rollbacks and cuts, but in many others LePage and his allies have succeeded in changing the state of Maine for the worse.
This scorecard of voting records of members of the 125th Maine Legislature showcases a sample of bills from across the issue areas that are most important to the members of the Maine People’s Alliance. Legislators’ overall percentage scores should give you a good sense of where they stand not just on the individual issues, but their fundamental values, including where they stand on community, investing in the future, fairness, equality, and justice for all Maine people.