Lawmakers Vote Along Party Lines Over Effort To Replace Maine's Presidential Caucuses With Primaries

[TexasTowelie]

The effort to replace Maine's presidential caucuses with a primary system next year could be in trouble, following a party line vote by the Legislature's Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee. Democratic lawmakers voted to approve the bill, but Republicans opposed it.

The partisan split is significant because Republican votes will be needed to enact the proposal when it reaches the House and Senate.

That is because the bill imposes a mandate on municipalities to pay most of the costs of implementing a primary system — and passing a mandate requires a two-thirds vote, which the Democrats don't have despite controlling the Legislature.

Maine has used a caucus system to select presidential nominees since 2004, but frustration during the 2016 presidential caucuses spurred an effort to retry the state's brief experiment with presidential primaries.

Read more: https://www.mainepublic.org/post/lawmakers-vote-along-party-lines-over-effort-replace-maines-presidential-caucuses-primaries

[Soxfan58]

1. This Mainer

Likes the Caucuses. Pure Democracy, fellow Democrats discussing our candidates. It's a good way to spend the day with like minded neighbors.

[Demit]

2. What do you think of the caucus in Portland, in 2016?

Thousands had to wait in line for hours to get in, and then the organizers decided to limit participation to those who were in line by 2pm. That meant people got shut out. That doesn't sound very democratic at all.

[Soxfan58]

3. My experiances have been in small town Maine

Portland needs to plan better.

[Turbineguy]

4. I remember that happend in Washington when

Pat Robertson won the GOP state caucus.

[msongs]

5. caucuses are elitist. hawaii's were hijacked by a mob last time around nt