This post was first published 30 October 2021.
I cover Maine’s congressional delegation for the state’s largest paper, the Portland Press Herald, and over the past week have been keeping close watch on their stances on President Biden’s (ever-shrinking) Build Back Better Plan.
For an overview on the positions of Reps. Jared Golden (D-ME02) — the most successful Democrat in Trumpland and a frequent thorn in his caucus’s side — and Chellie Pingree (D-ME01), a reliably progressive vote, here’s a story from earlier in the week drawing on fresh interviews with each of them.
On their stances — and those of Sens. Angus King (I) and Susan Collins (R) — on Biden’s compromise $1.75 trillion framework plan for the initiative, there’s this story from Thursday evening. [Update, 11/6/21: Talked to Golden again Friday afternoon about the compromise plan, which he says he won’t vote for until the CBO score is in.
And on those senator’s divergent positions on the effort to protect voting rights and confront voter suppression — with Collins opposed — there’s this story from last week in the Press Herald.
For more context on Golden, BBB, and the infrastructure bill, start with this, also in the Portland Press Herald.
COLIN WOODARD is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist. He is the author of six books that have been translated into a dozen foreign languages and inspired an NBC television drama. He is currently Director of Nationhood Lab at the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Affairs at Salve Regina University. As State and National Affairs Writer at the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram he won a 2012 George Polk Award and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2016. He is a contributing editor at POLITICO and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, Smithsonian and dozens of other major publications.