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2002 field guide to the gubernatorial candidates

By Lance Tapley

It’s that year again — gubernatorial election year! What a weird word that is: “gubernatorial.” Isn’t it from the Latin “guber,” meaning “goofy”? One thing we can predict about 2002: The candidates for Maine governor will provide us with entertainment. They already have.

Politicians have a reputation for being dull because they act and speak so ritualistically. But the Media Age has turned public figures into actors on a 24/7 soap opera. Look at the fun the lascivious Bill Clinton and those puritanical Republicans gave us. Even our own John Baldacci, Democratic gubernatorial candidate, has been featured (and photographed) by the nation’s high-class scandal sheet, Vanity Fair, in a piece about wild and beautiful congressional interns partying it up in DC.

The entertainment quotient has risen also as more amateurs stumble onto the stage, lured by polls deceptively opining that Americans don’t want their politicians to be politicians. Because officeholders often are found wallowing in bed with special interests instead of standing up for the public interest, they have a smelly reputation. Amateur Dan Wathen resigned from his cushy job as the state’s chief justice to run for governor, but he didn’t understand that the public wants politicians only to seem like nonpoliticians. If you can’t endure shaking a thousand hands and kissing a hundred babies a week, forget it. He lasted a few weeks.

Other amateurs are lured by observing the power of money in politics. Rich guys suspect they can buy an election. This works for some, as Angus King proved, but smooth Angus had been a TV personality for decades. This election’s Angus-wannabe, rough-edged independent David Flanagan, the former CMP president who just had his campaign staff quit on him, is discovering that buying an election may not be easy.

Then there is the Green room to this theater. The entertaining possibility that this earnest but disorganized third party may have a primary fight has attracted a lot of press. First, though, Jonathan Carter and Steve Farsaci each must get 2000 Green signatures — not assured when there are only 9000 or so Greens. If the Green candidate qualifies for public financing — not assured, because he must gather 2500 $5 contributions — he may receive close to a million dollars for his campaign. That is an entertaining prospect indeed because Greens don’t use ritualistic political rhetoric.

However, we at the Phoenix want to emphasize the issues, not the horse race, tempting as it is. State politics is not just entertainment. While our lives may not depend on who is governor (though in the Age of Terrorism this is something to consider), our financial condition may be affected. And the purity of the air we breathe, the cleanliness of the water we swim in, the safety of the elevators we ride on, the abundance of the animals we see (to watch or to shoot), and other quality-of-life issues are affected by who enforces the state’s laws.

So, to use as a reference, we offer this 2002 Field Guide to the Gubernatorial Candidates. The candidates have supplied the information on their positions, and we have added a commentary evaluating the stands expressed here on a conservative-progressive ånd a realistic-dreamy scale. Based solely on these responses, the candidates have been arranged with the most liberal/progressive on the left, the most conservative to the right. We don’t evaluate the candidates as individuals.

Happy New Gubernatorial Year!

Click HERE to download the profiles in PDF format.

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