2013 Election (Nov. 5) (Portland, South Portland: loan, buy, camping)

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by parducci

Actually I wasn't trying to start a political conversation at all. I honestly wanted to know which way Maine leans, as it does affect ones life if they think one way and move to a place that they are not from, thinks the other way. It was an honest question of location, location, location. Real simple. Meant no "stirring of the pot."

fair question

southern maine is the lunatic liberal fringe ....the epicenter being portland,,,
the further north you go, (this is a gray area) id say above augusta, some would say above newport- then it gets more conservative...

augusta employs (state government) thousands of state employees, and most lean left,,


i deal mostly with small businesses in my work,,,and most lean right, most of the working class i know, that doesnt get paid by taxes,, does lean right,


politics isnt usually openly discussed with strangers -so its not like anyone would be shunned,,,



most of maines population(density) is in the southern part of the state-while geographically, this is a small part of maine


if im a bit vague,,,im trying not to be offensive,,,,seems that some get offended very easily..

[slyfox2]

This is not a political comment, other than to say how great Maine is for elections, and how I hope that the bad forces from other places don't creep in.

I know that where I was in the Mid-Atlantic region it was so republican that no democrats had gotten in in 30 years. If you wanted to have any say, you registered Republican. So I did.

But on MDI, there are way more democrats, so I registered Democrat which is what I really am. But I'd vote for a moderate of either or any party if they were willing to compromise for the best of everybody, not just their own idealistic view---and i have already done so.

And that's a neat thing about Maine. At least Downeast, people tend to vote for candidates that say what they want to hear, regardless of which party they are. If the candidate has good sound ideas and is willing to work with everyone, they tend to get elected, and it won't make any difference what their party affiliation is. The one that I liked over the other guy who I also know is what he did to get elected. His opponent is a great guy who is fair and runs a great store in town that everybody goes to. I almost voted for him. But the one I voted for visited every house, including mine in the whole district area to talk about what he wanted. No candidate that I ever saw did that. Nobody ever visited my house to talk with me about the issues---NEVER EVER!

In the election last year we had an almost sweep of the democrats except for one guy. I actually voted for him and he was a republican---even though I'm a demo. Oddly, the guy he was running against sent me an ad about how he was running to bring fairness back to Augusta. Since his business had a personal reputation for UNFAIRNESS, it was not his kind of fairness that I was interested in seeing in Augusta. And apparently everyone else agreed in that case. It was his last ad that did him in. I thought it was pretty funny.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Portland voted to legalize pot.
South Portland voted NOT to try to regulate international trade in oil.
As usual, Maine voted in favor of all the bonds.

[JoulesMSU]

Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man

South Portland voted NOT to try to regulate international trade in oil.

Yeah, I had a hard time deciding on this, but I ultimately went with "no" because it seemed too restrictive beyond its' intended purpose.

It was basically trying to amend the current law to make it so that you can only UNLOAD oil in the harbor, but not load it (so that it could still receive the current shipments from overseas, but it wouldn't be able to send Tar Sands from Canada overseas).

That seems silly, because if you are going to handle oil then what difference does it make whether it's coming or going? Under this law, it still would have been possible to bring tar sand oil IN from places like Russia, Kazakhstan, or Nigeria... it would have only prevented it coming in from Canada AND it would have also prevented "normal" oil from the Dakotas, Texas, or anywhere else that might somehow find its way here to be shipped out.

Basically, like most laws that try to prohibit something specific, it was too broad and would have had negative "unintended consequences" for other economic activity.



Disappointed that all the bonds passed. Even though I supported a few, I voted "no" on all anyways just in hopes that at least a few would fail. We're looking to buy a house within the next year or two, I don't appreciate having our future property taxes go up because a bunch of people think it's "free money" to give out.

Instead of wasting all this time campaigning about the WPO, there should be a massive effort to educate people that "when bonds pass, the money comes out of your pocket". Maybe people would stop to think about voting "yes" on them in the future...

[namder1]

Appears you were right NMLM. I have to wonder if people know that bonds are just loans that need to be paid back??

[Submariner]

Debt goes up, so taxes will go up. The only 'winner' is the banking industry who charges interest on this money we borrow.

[bangorme]

The Obamaphone Maine voters strike again. Bond issues equal free money!!!!!!!!! Poverty begets poverty.

[Newdaawn]

I always vote to support roads and bridges. I prefer not to have them "crumble" while crossing. This has happend in other states.

[1986pacecar]

Threads like these are why i pretty much quit frequenting Forums. They always end up in a political discussion that has less to do with the particular forum and more to do with people's political ideology.

[elston]

Originally Posted by mainebrokerman

fair question

southern maine is the lunatic liberal fringe ....the epicenter being portland,,,
the further north you go, (this is a gray area) id say above augusta, some would say above newport- then it gets more conservative...

augusta employs (state government) thousands of state employees, and most lean left,,


i deal mostly with small businesses in my work,,,and most lean right, most of the working class i know, that doesnt get paid by taxes,, does lean right,


politics isnt usually openly discussed with strangers -so its not like anyone would be shunned,,,



most of maines population(density) is in the southern part of the state-while geographically, this is a small part of maine


if im a bit vague,,,im trying not to be offensive,,,,seems that some get offended very easily..

there wasn't anything "vague" about your view point. If you had balanced "liberal lunatic fringe" with a description of the "right wing wacko element" up north you might have succeeded in being inoffensive.....unfortunately you didn't achieve that. Perhaps because it is so easy to label and dismiss, rather than honestly engage in dialogue.....that seems to be symptomatic of politics today.