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CNN recently released results of a poll that showed more than half — 52% — of likely
voters favoring Hannah Pingree as opposed to 39% saying they plan to vote for Bobby Charles (the poll did not include independent Rick Bennett, a former Republican). Last month, a Fox poll pegged Pingree at 49% compared to Charles’ 38% and Bennett’s 9%.

The answer is strikingly simple: it is not enough just to defeat Bobby Charles. In order to perpetuate their now eight-year stranglehold on power in the state, Maine Democrats must crush everything Charles represents, and to bury his call that Augusta actually be accountable for a change.

Taking a page out of an authoritarian’s handbook, the Democrats seem intent on obliterating Charles altogether — and stigmatizing those who might support him in November.

Charles’ sister authored an op-ed that was published in these pages on Sept. 9 and announced her intention to vote for Pingree. Based on a deeply personal revelation, the op-ed argued that her brother is too divisive and not sufficiently supportive of women to merit her vote.

It was a political body blow, reminiscent of women coming forward this summer alleging they’d been assaulted by then-Democratic senatorial nominee Graham Platner. While emotionally charged and undeniably brave in terms of public disclosure, there was something about both events that felt very political. After all, the synchronized press conference was held at the state Democrats’ Portland office.

Many of us disagree about politics around the family dinner table, but this was very different.

Also consider the peculiar press conference they staged late last month in a Portland park where one usually must tread carefully to avoid stepping on used hypodermic needles. It was there that former Maine CDC Director Nirav Shah — who but for ranked-choice voting would be squaring off against Charles this November — and two other Democrat-aligned public health figures inveighed against the Republican’s pledge to cut the state budget by $4 billion and insisted he would eliminate benefits for Maine’s senior citizens.

How dare he, Dr. Shah then seemed to sneer.

Then there is the candidacy of Rick Bennett itself. Fashioning himself a latter-day Bill
Cohen by walking around the state to put himself in various communities, Bennett —
once a chairman of the state GOP — seems to be a pressure release valve for old-
fashioned Maine Republicans who just wish people could be nice again and want to feel
good about their vote. But Bennett’s single-digit showing shows us how much times have
changed.

Why is he even running, I asked in a Maine Wire column a year ago, when sheer mathematics so
clearly indicated he has no path to victory? There are only two explanations I can
imagine today: either he wants to make a point, as Lindsey Graham did when he ran for
president in 2016 on the sole platform of defeating ISIS, or he wants to help someone
siphon away votes.

The only way to know which of these is Bennett’s motivation is to wait until Pingree announces her cabinet. “Look, Republicans,” Bennett’s candidacy seems to say, “this is what you are supposed to look like, pay attention!”

Maybe Maine Democrats are just so much better organized and resourced than their erstwhile counterparts at the state GOP that they can afford to spend as much attention on systematically attacking Charles as they have. But the persistence of their effort points to something different.

Cutting taxes and fighting crime are the wrong priorities, this effort insists. Despite the double-digit advantage Pingree seems to enjoy, crushing everything Charles stands for is important. Because, despite the breezy prettiness of Maine’s bucolic coast, they are afraid to discuss the rot that consumes Augusta today. Very afraid.