John Nutting

First it was Senator Bill Diamond, then John Nutting and now Senator Nancy Sullivan has decided to test the waters in the “one vote makes a difference” side show that has plagued the 18-17 Senate.

No one is exactly sure when Senator Diamond jumped ship on HIS compromise budget in favor of the latest House version, but he was definitely spotted swimming to democratic shores swallowing mouthfuls of promises along the way.

Just beneath the surface in the Maine Senate there is angst, and the cause is Senator Bill Diamond.

Maine House Speaker Glenn Cummings, D-Portland, is pushing legislation to redefine conflict of interest, undue influence and abuse of office in state government.

At the heart of his bill, which was heard in the Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee Monday, is a clause allowing citizens to come to the Ethics Commission with complaints about their legislators.  read more »

With an 18-17 Senate, can the liberal wing of the party create enough enticements to keep the significant number of moderate folks like Senators Diamond, Hobbins, Marrache, and Nutting in line? That will not be an easy task.

Senator John Nutting (D), the dairy famer-senator from Androscoggin County, provided members of the Appropriation's Committee with a helpful list of suggested cuts. 

Just when you thought move-org had filled all their slots for the democratic primary in the first district race to replace Tom Allen, we learn there is another in the name of Steve Meister. (Thanks for heads up from a reader)

Dr. Meister is a pediatrician and a former Navy physician who served in the first Gulf War.  His only political donation to a Federal candidate was to State Senator John Nutting, back in 2002.  Senator Nutting was running for Congress in the second district.  Does that make Dr. Meister a moderate democrat, like Senator Nutting, or was he just a friend?