Tag Archives: Kevin Raye

Nov 23 2013

MacDonald Endorses Poliquin

In a development that may well influence and decide the Republican Primary in CD2, the mayor of Lewiston, Robert MacDonald, who won his office by a 61% margin, has endorsed former State Treasurer Bruce Poliquin.  The city of Lewiston is the largest populace in the 2nd District of Maine.  Still basking in the glow of his dominating victory, the popular former police detective was quick to announce his support for his fellow Lewiston native son.

MacDonald declared emphatically his belief that Poliquin was “the best State Treasurer Maine has ever had”.  He also made reference to Poliquin’s family roots by stating, “He’s an honest and hard-working Franco-American whose grandfather was born and raised in Lewiston”.  Poliquin’s French Catholic heritage will certainly help him with the voting demographics of Lewiston.

In Lewiston’s last Republican primary, Kevin Raye defeated Blaine Richardson by a little over a hundred votes, but 14% of the remaining Republican primary voters could not bring themselves to make a choice for either candidate and opted, instead, to leave their vote blank.  MacDonald’s obvious popularity and enthusiastic endorsement bodes well for Poliquin’s campaign as they work to reignite a passion in the Republican base, which was sorely lacking in the last election cycle.

While it is a well-known fact that I am supporting the Poliquin campaign, I thought it would be interesting to filter these new political developments through our own several biases.  It would seem to me that the majority of the impact endorsements are lining up in ever increasing numbers with strong statements for the Poliquin camp.  The pattern seems to be weighted in his favor and I would wager more endorsements from conservative leaders and organizations are on the horizon. The coalition is forming and its gaining strength.

Oct 22 2013

Blaine Richardson: Kevin Raye’s Biggest Ally?

 

 

With the recent revelations in fundraising, Kevin Raye may be sending olive branches, cuddly bunnies and warm well wishes to libertarian candidate Blaine Richardson in an effort to keep him in the race.  It’s becoming increasing clear that Richard Rosen will most likely not enter the race so as to not split the moderate vote for Kevin Raye.  The old guard/status quo Republicans will now be free to coalesce behind Raye.

 

Now, the former State Senate President and career Olympia Snowe favorite, will hold out his hope that Maine Conservatives will continue in their historical self-destructive pattern of sticking it to each other for the sake of, well, just sticking it to each other.  Blaine Richardson has had a horrific start to the political fundraising season.  He comes out of the gate already woefully in debt.  His only hope for impact in this primary is to hobble the already strong striding Poliquin.

 

Bruce Poliquin has not just sent a shot across the bow of his political opponents of both Parties; he has fired a trident missile.  As the shock waves have blistered through the Raye camp, the rattled old guard is now looking at Blaine Richardson as their new favorite BFF.  He is their own dark horse, who represents their only outside chance to upset the surging and well-funded conservative, Bruce Poliquin.  If their ace-in-the-hole Richardson strategy works, once again the status quo will be forcing 2nd District Republican voters into holding their noses and voting for a candidate that does not share their values.  It looks as if the ground swell behind Poliquin may be enough to overcome Richardson’s attempt to be Poliquin’s Achilles heel.  But to watch Maine conservatives stubbornly cling to these self-destructive patterns every election cycle is mind numbing at best.

Oct 16 2013

Bruce Poliquin Outpaces His Opponents; Kevin Raye Falls Short

 

 

The numbers are in and it is a matter of what we expected and what we didn’t.  We all expected Bruce Poliquin to be able to fundraise with the best of them, but I’m not sure we expected him to double Kevin Raye out of gate.  Poliquin has also eclipsed the numbers reported by the Democrat contenders.

 

We expected that Kevin Raye would struggle outside of Washington County.  We didn’t expect that he would fall short of the $100,000 mark conventional wisdom predicted he would raise easily.  As many of the major donors have jumped ship to the Poliquin camp, Raye may be finding the pickings slim in the search for deep pockets.  His disappointing start will not help.

 

We expected that Blaine Richardson would struggle to fundraise, but we did not expect that he would already be in the negative.  While Richardson seems to relish his dark horse status, one wonders if he is the only hope that Kevin Raye has to challenge the surging Poliquin.  Richardson will hold his loyal following and Kevin Raye will hope it is enough to help him steal the nomination from Poliquin.

Sep 3 2013

Not a Raye of Hope for Kevin

Our Nation is a democracy, which is a representative form of government.  Acknowledging that there are differences in belief systems from region to region, we have divided our States and Counties up into districts to try and help elect a representative, who bests represents the needs and desires of that area.  Although flawed in some respects, that is the general idea.

So, one would think that a candidate running for election in a selected district would try to best show himself a good representation of that district.  Not so, for one career politician, who is running in the Republican primary for U.S. Congressional District Two.  This man seems to be confusing who is representing whom?

Kevin Raye recently announced his candidacy, again, for Congress in CD 2.  This will be his third attempt.  In the last Republican primary for CD 2, Raye was only able to muster 51% of the vote against a no-name first time candidate. Moreover, 13% decided neither candidate was worth voting for, stayed home and didn’t vote.  In only three counties, other than his own, was the former Senator able to garner more than 50% of the primary vote.  Not a good omen for a candidate who claimed he could win the general election.

In the general election, Raye fared worse in his second attempt than he did in his first, losing by a larger margin.  It seems name recognition did not work to the benefit of the State Senator from Washington County the second time around.  The more they saw of him, the less they liked him.  Kevin Raye lost every single county other than his own in the general election.  Yes, even the historical Republican bastion of Piscataquis County chose perennial wallflower Mike Michaud as a stronger candidate over Kevin Raye.  Many officials refused to carry Raye’s signs in parades fearing the backlash they would receive from the decidedly conservative crowds in the Second Congressional District.

Which brings up another interesting point.  The Rayes have been very public about their support and promotion of abortion.  They support Emily’s List and The Wish List; two organizations that zealously promote abortion and candidates that follow this mantra.  Yet, Kevin Raye feels that somehow an overwhelmingly Pro-Life 2nd District should set aside their belief system and allow him to represent them.  Who is representing whom?  And this represents the 2nd District in what way?  These are just few reasons why there is such tough sledding for Raye outside of Washington County.

Kevin Raye has done everything he can do to disenfranchise the voters of the CD 2.  His one major political accomplishment outside of his county is to be the first Republican to lose an election in Piscataquis County, the Red County, in a very long time.  It is easy to see, after a look at all the facts, that there is not a Raye of hope that this candidate represents the interests of our district.