Daniel Trudeau's blog

As Democrats are gathering in Denver for the Democratic National Convention, Republicans in Maine are saying they're skeptical of the man the Democrats are expected to name their presidential nominee.

In a statement Tuesday, Maine GOP chairman Mark Ellis said U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was not ready to lead the nation. 

“Barack Obama’s record speaks for itself – he is not ready to lead,” said Ellis said. “When it comes to taxes, Obama voted for tax increases 94 times during his short tenure in the Senate.  He even supported raising taxes on those making as little as $42,000.  The last thing Maine families and Maine small businesses need in these tough economic times are higher taxes.”   

Ellis also criticized Obama's stated reluctance to expand off-shore oil drilling as a method for bringing down gasoline prices, saying presumptive Republican nominee U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) offered better solutions.

"Obama opposes common sense solutions like offshore drilling and nuclear energy, while John McCain has the right idea in proposing comprehensive ‘all of the above’ solutions to our energy crisis.  The bottom line is Obama is wrong on the economy and wrong on energy.  Barack Obama does not have the judgment or the experience to be President of the United States.” 

State Rep. Tom Saviello (I-Wilton) will chair the Maine state branch of "Citizens for McCain," a group formed to draw independents and Democrats to Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign, the campaign announced Monday.

Saviello is a former Democrat first elected to the state House of Representatives in 2002. He left the Democratic party in 2005.

"Senator McCain's leadership, experience and ability to work with others regardless of party affiliation are the necessary requirements for the next President of the United States," Saviello said in a statement released with the announcement. 

"There is no doubt in my mind that our grassroots efforts of going door-to-door and handshake-to-handshake will demonstrate these qualities and deliver Senator McCain's message to the people of the State of Maine."

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain closed the gap in Maine on his presumptive Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, according to a Rasmussen poll released Friday.

The poll showed U.S. Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) with 36 percent support in Maine to U.S. Sen. Obama's (D-Ill.) 46 percent. While still trailing, the poll shows apparent progress for McCain, who lagged behind Obama, 55 percent to 33 percent, in a similar poll conducted on month ago.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins: Getty Images Photo A Rasmussen poll released Friday shows U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Bangor) maintaining her lead over U.S. Rep. Tom Allen (D-Portland) with little change over the last month in voter sentiment about the U.S. Senate race.

Rasmussen's poll showed Collins holding a steady advantage — 49 percent to 42 percent — over her Democratic challenger.

With so-called "leaners" — undecided voters with an inclination toward one candidate or the other — taken into consideration, Collin's lead expands to 53 percent to 43 percent, Rasmussen reports.

U.S. Sen. John McCain: Getty Images PhotoThe Maine Republican Party issued a statement Wednesday dismissing a planned protest to be staged outside a Portland gas station by the liberal political organization, MoveOn.

MoveOn was scheduled to launch the protest as part of its "National Day of Action for an Oil Free President" in an effort to publicly criticize the energy record of presumptive Republican presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

The state GOP, however, said the group was off-base.

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins: Getty Images PhotoCongressional Quarterly ran a story Tuesday on the U.S. Senate race between Democrat Tom Allen and Republican incumbent Susan Collins.

The article attempted to measure Collins' vulnerability in a race that she has led from the onset. A recent Rasmussen poll suggested Allen was closing the gap on the state's junior senator, but Collins' campaign told CQ they're comfortably ahead, both in the polls and in fundraising.

Allen's folks said their strategy of tying Collins to the unpopular policies of the Bush administration is working, and that a victory by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama could help carry Allen into the Senate as well.

Read the story here.

U.S. Rep. Tom Allen (D-Portland) proposed a new energy plan on Wednesday, calling on oil companies to start drilling on the untapped land they hold under lease.

Allen, who is seeking the U.S. Senate seat of Susan Collins (R-Bangor), outlined his plan at a press conference at a private residence in Bangor.

Allen blamed high gasoline and heating oil costs for stiffling the American economy and afflicting working families. He urged oil companies to make better use of their resources to help remedy the problem:

"The oil industry currently holds leases on more than 90 million acres of land, yet they are drilling on less than a third of this acreage. We need a sensible drilling strategy that forces Big Oil to start drilling on the other 68 million acres under lease to increase the supply of American oil in the marketplace," Allen said.

"If we harness American ingenuity for energy independence, we can achieve our goals while making sure we don't increase global warming or create other environmental problems. We can do far better than we're doing now and have to be bold in our actions so that future generations aren't held hostage by foreign oil."