Good morning from Augusta, where two longshot major-party candidates are trying desperately to gain ground on U.S. Sen. Angus King, who was on a motorcycle tour of Maine this weekend and has seemed to be doing his best to ignore their existence so far.
King, an independent former two-term governor who caucuses with Democrats,cited a scheduling conflict as a reason for skipping a student-led Thursday debate that focused on gun policy in Portland. His 2018 opponents, state Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn, and educator Zak Ringelstein of Yarmouth, went anyway.
Brakey had someone in a chicken suit walk around Portland to tease King and an empty chair was left for the incumbent during the debate as Brakey and Ringelstein — who has been arrested twice during acts of protest during his campaign — disagreed on virtually everything except that they wanted King there. For now, their race is an uphill one.
Brakey and Ringelstein presented heavily partisan positions on guns.Brakey is one of the Legislature’s most absolute gun-rights supporters and championed a bill eliminating the requirement for a concealed-handgun permit. Ringelstein is about his exact opposite on that issue, saying during the debate that gun manufacturers should be held liable for gun violence.
To read the rest of “Angus King’s challengers are clamoring for attention, but history is working against them,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Michael Shepherd, please follow this link to the BDN online.
