Good morning from Augusta. Sen. Susan Collins’ vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court has several Democrats at least putting their name out there as potential 2020 challengers to the Republican, whose seat has long been seen as untouchable. We urge a healthy dose of skepticism before putting the Maine seat atop the list of national swing seats two years from now — as CNN did on Friday — but it’s true that Democrats now have a potentially powerful item to rally their voters against Collins. The questions are whether that enthusiasm will linger and how Democrats — who have not ..read more

Good morning from Augusta. The U.S. Senate is scheduled to convene this morning to consider President Donald Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, so we are expecting to soon hear where the undecided Sen. Susan Collins stands on him. The centrist Republican from Maine is one of four undecided senators who could swing the nomination, which became uncertain after California professor Christine Blasey Ford went public in September with allegations that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her while they were in high school. Two other women made similar allegations and he denies all ..read more

Good morning from Augusta. The U.S. Senate is set to begin voting on Friday to confirm embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh after the FBI delivered a confidential report to senators on allegations of sexual assault against the appeals court judge. Kavanaugh’s nomination is teetering in part because of Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who is one of three Republicans alongside Sens. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska who forced the FBI’s expanded background check last week. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, is also undecided. To get Kavanaugh confirmed, President Donald T ..read more

Good morning from Augusta. Maine’s gubernatorial candidates will be spending a lot of time together on Wednesday and Thursday with four forums — two in southern Maine today and two more tomorrow. Just about all of the Maine political observers we’ve talked to about the race to replace Gov. Paul LePage have found it to be a sleepy one. The candidates aren’t known as bomb-throwers and the major issues in the campaign so far have been raised by outside groups. There has been more comity than conflict so far, but familiarity could breed contempt. As we draft today’s Daily Brief, the candidates are ..read more

Good morning from Augusta, where ever-increasing outside spending and a new round of Democratic endorsements from former President Barack Obama are helping to light up battlegrounds on the map in the race for control of the Maine Legislature. Outside groups have spent nearly $4 million in state races so far, with more than $3.4 million of that going into the governor’s race. But the targeting in legislative races has begun — particularly among Democrats who want expand a lead in the House of Representatives and take the Senate, which Republicans control by just one seat. The early Senate battl ..read more

Good morning from Augusta, where Republicans are hoping for a campaign boost from the White House as President Donald Trump‘s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., will visit Portland today for a state GOP fundraising event. The private event is mostly aimed at a U.S. Senate race, but the fundraising will help Republicans down the ticket. The event is largely aimed at boosting state Sen. Eric Brakey’s run to unseat Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats. Democrat Zak Ringelstein of Falmouth is also running. Brakey is seen as a longshot, but he has national connections that have al ..read more

Good morning from Augusta, which was far from the center of Maine’s political universe on Thursday. The day’s major political drama unfolded during almost nine hours of testimony before a U.S. Senate panel by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and professor Christine Blasey Ford, who has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her while they were in high school. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of the few Republican senators left undecided on Kavanaugh, was sequestered for much of Thursday to watch the hearing, where Ford said she was “100 percent” certain that Kavanaugh assaulted her and ..read more

Good morning from Augusta on a key day in the battle over Medicaid expansion. A judge will hear arguments today and tomorrow in different areas of advocates’ complicated legal fight to force voter-approved expansion, which has been resisted by Gov. Paul LePage. The case will be back in a Portland court on Thursday after the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ordered the state last month to file an expansion plan with the federal government while sending legal and administrative questions back to Superior Court Justice Michaela Murphy. She’ll hear arguments on those issues today. On Friday, lawyers w ..read more

Good morning from Augusta, where there’s a lot of Democratic fundraising momentum in Maine’s gubernatorial and legislative races — and not just because of a strong summer showing from Attorney General Janet Mills, the Democratic nominee for governor. Mills raised a strong $800,000 from mid-July through last week, more than doubling up Republican nominee Shawn Moody over that period, resulting in an overall fundraising lead for the Democrat since the primary, though the two have roughly the same amount left. That’s good for Democrats, but it looks like there will soon be a deluge of outside mon ..read more

Good morning from Augusta, where new sexual assault allegations against President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee and confusion about the job status of the deputy attorney general got us thinking about where the president is most and least popular in Maine. We sorted the results of the 2016 presidential election between Trump, a Republican, and Democrat Hillary Clinton by Maine Senate district. It reveals some parallels to national polling showing that under Trump, Republicans are increasingly struggling in suburban areas that they have held in the past. Maine is lukewarm on Trump as a wh ..read more