When Maine voters delivered a thumping to Democrats in the gubernatorial and legislative races last year, they relieved them of many of the responsibilities of governing, both in actuality and in a figurative sense, and placed those responsibilities squarely upon Gov. Paul LePage and his new Republican majorities.

I’m not sure either side has fully realized this.

LePage is still acting as if he were in the opposition. He’s focusing on bluster and the bully pulpit, when he could be spending his time actually operating the levers of power.

Why, for instance, did he issue a public threat to veto the state budget when he could have just met with the Legislature’s leaders, his own Republican allies, and worked to find strategies to promote his policies?

Democrats, who held the reins of government for decades, got the blame for the economic downturn and were seen by voters to have stagnated in power. Yet they haven’t taken this opportunity to reach out to voters and re-grow the connections of basic values that obviously withered in the lead-up to 2010.

Since their election loss, Democratic leaders have mostly put their heads down and worked to find legislative common ground. They haven’t publicly pushed back on the issues in a coordinated way, and have been fairly gentle in any criticism of the opposition.

New Senate Minority Leader Barry Hobbins, for example, took issue in a recent radio address with the governor’s decision to exempt his business advisory council from Maine’s freedom of access law:

“I’ve refrained from criticizing the governor and his administration. Instead, I have observed with patience and respect as the governor learns his way around Augusta,” said Hobbins. “That being said, it seems that the governor has deviated from his transparency in government pledge that he made in his inaugural address on January 5.”

It was the bluntest criticism Hobbins has leveled at LePage and his policies so far, but it’s not exactly “kiss my butt.”

Nor should it be. I’m not saying that Democratic leaders should attack LePage personally — it’s probably best in most cases to allow him to self-destruct, as he has on several issues already — but implicit in their election loss is the need for Democrats to make a new case for their ideas, something they can’t do while keeping their heads down.

Minority status brings with it advantages in this respect. Democrats still have to be involved in the sausage-making of legslation, especially in the budget, but they’re no longer in charge of sausage-taste-testing and quality control.

They share a much smaller responsibility for the end product than they did previously, and this should give them more freedom to express their values and stand by their ideals.

LePage has made this even easier. By making statements such as his veto threat and by being so forceful in proclaiming his authority over every aspect of the state, down to what hangs on the walls in the Department of Labor and the sign that greets motorists at the border, he has increased the public perception of his own responsibility for making sure that government functions and that compromise is found.

And voters care about compromise. In Wisconsin, for instance, polls showed that the public was, on balance, only slightly opposed to Gov. Scott Walker’s policies about union collective bargaining. There was much wider and more fervent opposition, however, to his “my way or the highway” approach to legislating.

Walker, like LePage, seemed to forget that he had a responsibility to represent everyone. It was his failure to negotiate or even be seen to try to find common ground that led to a popular revolt, weeks of protest and now recall proceedings against half the Republicans in the State Senate.

Maine’s Democratic leadership doesn’t have to mount a public opposition on every issue, but on some they have both an opportunity and an advantage to fostering a public conversation around Democratic values that enjoy wide public support.

Here’s one example: When voters are asked how we should balance the federal budget, the most popular option is to increase taxes on those making more than $1 million per year (81 percent support, according to a recent Wall street Journal/MSNBC poll). The least popular action is to cut health care for seniors and the poor (22 percent and 32 percent support, respectively).

LePage’s state budget does the opposite of what people want, cutting MaineCare and giving new tax breaks to millionaires.

The role of the loyal opposition is to point out this kind of mismatch, loudly and with conviction. The role of the government is to listen and to compromise. Neither side is yet living up to these roles.

Mike Tipping is a political junkie. He writes the Tipping Point blog on Maine politics at DownEast.com, his own blog at MainePolitics.net and works for the Maine People’s Alliance and the Maine People’s Resource Center. He’s @miketipping on Twitter. Email to writebacktomike@gmail.com

Copy the Story Link