An anonymous comment came in over the weekend on my post about the Maine Compact for Higher Ed's governor's debate.
"I listened to the MPBS, Jennifer Rooks and the candidates Thursday afternoon driving from Bangor to Farmington and had almost the exact same reaction as you. As arrogant as Cutler comes across I am getting closer to giving him my vote much against my usual party line affiliation. As an educator and as a mom whose son returned to Maine and has a small business I know first hand that many of Maine's schools do not support Maine students with the kind of learning experiences that help students to maximize their potentials and help all students become productive and healthy citizen of the world. I am very much in favor of Maine having public Charter schools and can no longer support the MEA."
I read that comment after getting off the phone with a friend who retired from a successful international business he founded and ran from Maine. He'd called at his wife's suggestion with this question: did I think that, despite the perceptions of Mr. Cutler's arrogance on the campaign trail, he'd make a good governor?
What strikes me most is not that he was asking - as more and more people start to pay attention to the governor's race, it seems more and more are struggling with the "scary" LePage vs. "business-as-usual" Mitchell question. What struck me is that in the course of our conversation, he spoke glowingly of Ronald Reagan's endorsement of Barry Goldwater's candidacy in 1960.
I was not alive for that - and could not be described in any way, shape, or form as a fan of Ronald Reagan or Barry Goldwater.
But what, I wonder, does it say about the state of affairs in Maine that such clearly intelligent, successful people - one a "party line" Democrat and educator, and the other a Reagan/Goldwater Republican, are so reluctant to vote for their party's candidates? I, for one, don't think it has to do much with the individuals. In fact, an argument could be made that both major party candidates are excellent representatives of where their parties are at right now - Mr. LePage the angry, often incoherent right and Ms. Mitchell the hope-instead-of-courage Democrats.
Eliot Cutler, then should be the ideal candidate of the principled middle - indignant, perhaps even righteously so, at what is not working - but not at the expense of compassion for those who tend to be the easy targets of the angry right. And those of us who generally see ourselves as advocates for a real safety net - but are disappointed in the degree to which the president's "bipartisanship" comes off as capitulation - can find in Mr. Cutler the kind of genuinely bold health, energy, education, and economic policies that we had been led to believe a new kind of Democratic leadership was going to fight for.
As you may have guessed by now, I explained to my friend that I do indeed think that Mr. Cutler's style, while not warm and fuzzy, might be much better for Maine than the alternatives...and that I had spoken to executive directors of two large Maine organizations who felt the same way. To which my businessman friend said, "So why are so many folks, including you, unwilling to come out and say that? Don't you think there are folks out there who's endorsement would help folks feel more comfortable voting for Cutler?"
And that, of course, is where we both realized how paralyzed we are by the two party system and the role of money in politics. While I'm a bit player in terms of budget and politics, I'm in a similar position to folks who might make such an endorsement in that the policies I advocate will need significant support in Augusta. In my organization's case, we need a reliable mechanism to sustainably fund innovative public schools. So while I take her at her word that she'll support our innovative approach to schools if she is elected, the realities of party politics make it difficult for her to meaningfully challenge what the MEA, her largest funder, has staked their support on.
Despite the oxymoronic nature of such a statement, she keeps repeating that public charter schools take money from public schools, further contributing to the miasma of misinformation that substitutes for real debate. And because she is known for being a talented keeper of party discipline, many sitting Democrats and candidates for Maine house and Senate can agree with me privately but cannot do so publicly (though one insider said to me last week that her position on school reform may change somewhat once she no longer needs the MEA's cash to get elected...here's hoping.)
So why don't I support Mr. LePage, then, who nominally supports "charter schools," an innovation that I also nominally support. He gets elected, passes a charter law, and our organization is off to the races, backed by guaranteed federal start-up money. Better stay on his good side, right? Sorry, can't go that way either. Given the degree to which those who fund Mr. LePage are intent on keeping Americans as ignorant and ill-informed as possible, it strains credulity to think that the version of charter schools he would support would interrupt that agenda much.
Back to public support for Mr. Cutler. Given the polls (21% seems like striking distance to me, but barely) and the perceptions of arrogance, those of us who will need to be in favor with a new administration must curry that favor. (Or at least not do what ever the opposite of "curry" is, which, though I'm not sure what word that is, I'm fairly certain I'm doing now). Officially, the position of anyone with a stake in the game has to be; should Mr, LePage win, I'll do the best I can to work within the "reforms" he introduces. Should Ms. Mitchell win, I'll do the best to work within the "reforms" she introduces.
And should those who secretly want Mr. Cutler to win - but are afraid to admit it for fear of being on the outs should one of the others win - vote in enough numbers to put him over the top? Well, let's just say I think Maine's kids and communities will adapt to the kind of arrogance that thinks being both smart and bold, rather than one or the other, is good for Maine.
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