When I began serving in the Legislature, I never imagined I would be part of a lawsuit against a sitting governor, speaker of the House, and president of the Maine Senate. I want people to know why. It is a story of back-door dealings, lies and a phony adjournment.
Last March Republicans were shut out of the Appropriations discussions because they wanted to lower taxes, especially for low- to middle-income earners. Democrats hold the majority in both the House and Senate; their intent was to spend taxpayer money without lowering taxes.
On March 30, the Legislature voted on a Democrat-only budget, then shut down the Legislature three months early. The “unreasonable” Republicans were proposing cutting taxes on some of the most economically vulnerable Mainers. Not a single Republican representative or senator voted for that budget.
The Democrats pretended the Legislature’s work was done rather than pass the traditional bipartisan budget that needs a negotiated two-thirds “super majority” vote to pass by June 21. That is how it’s laid out in the Maine Constitution.
According to the Legislators’ Handbook, adjourning sine die “is the final adjournment of the legislative session when legislative business has been completed.” Passing their simple-majority budget should have put the rest of the legislative agenda on hold until the next session of the Legislature.
Our work was not complete. Several hundred bills remained to be acted on in order to address pressing issues facing Mainers. More than a fourth of all proposed legislation (including L.D. 1619, the governor’s signature abortion bill) had not even been printed by the Revisor of Statutes office.
Every Democrat still present in the legislative chambers voted to adjourn sine die. It was a lie. The intention was a pretend adjournment.
The following day, just hours later, Gov. Mills declared that an adjourned Legislature was an “extraordinary occasion” threatening the “public health, safety and welfare.” She ordered the Legislature to reconvene.
I personally hand delivered a letter to the governor asking specifically what occurred during those few hours for her to order us into a special session. She never responded. There was no emergency. There wasn’t even anything extraordinary. It was blatant collusion by the governor and the presiding officers to subvert the Constitution, disrespect the legislative process, and put their political agenda ahead of the people of Maine.
This decision was costly. Maine families are now going to absorb higher living costs and another tax hike despite Gov. Mills’ promise that she wouldn’t raise taxes. Democrats stripped the fiscal notes from countless bills before gaveling them into law, creating hundreds of millions of dollars in unfunded obligations waiting for the next budget.
We should never have enacted much of the atrocious legislation the resulting Special Session brought forth. In the face of historic involvement of constituents from all over the state, Democrats rallied around the most radical abortion bill in the country. The Democrats assaulted Maine families with legislation stripping parental rights, and a bill endorsing the mutilation of pubescent children in the name of “gender-affirming care.”
I chose to become a plaintiff in Clardy v. Jackson because I was unable to do the job that I was elected to do, for the people of Maine. I couldn’t protect my constituents from this unconstitutional special session. My questions went unanswered. My objections went unheeded. Democrat leadership must be held accountable for their political games. My fellow plaintiffs and I are up for that challenge. All of the lawsuit information can be found on Respect Maine’s website at www.respect-maine.org.
I’ll close with an admonition to my Democrat colleagues. One day, your actions will hit Maine hard. You will not be able to say, “OK for thee, but not for me.” Your decisions to strip the rights of the Maine people will come to roost. Whenever that day comes for you, remember that you chose loyalty and obedience to a party over doing what was right for the Maine people. Party over principle is never the way to lead and serve.
As I pursue this lawsuit with my fellow plaintiffs, we’re fighting to roll back the legislative injustices and the Unconstitutional actions committed against the Maine people.
If our lawsuit prevails, my esteemed colleagues will never have to truly deal with the consequences of their actions. That may be a blessing they do not want, but it’s the outcome that the people of Maine need.
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