Good morning from Augusta. U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was in Maine on Friday for a rally and fundraiser to boost state Sen. Eric Brakey, calling the underdog GOP challenger to independent U.S. Sen. Angus King “a different kind of Republican.”
It provided some star power to Brakey, who was running a distant second to King, a popular former two-term governor, in the only public poll of the race last month. Brakey and Democratic nominee Zak Ringelstein — who registered single digits in that poll — have been swinging hard at King in the early going while the senator has virtually ignored them.
While King, who caucuses with Senate Democrats, appears to be in a good position, he’ll find it harder to keep ignoring his challengers as we advance toward November — and Paul’s visit helped show that. The former presidential hopeful sat down with the Bangor Daily News before Friday’s fundraiser at a private home in Cumberland Foreside.
The libertarian-leaning Paul said Brakey would be a champion of unique issues, but he also said there may be ‘too much compromise’ in Congress.Paul and Brakey go way back. Brakey got his start in Maine politics as the Maine director for the 2012 presidential campaign of the senator’s father, former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, who had outsized support in Maine. Brakey also chaired Rand Paul’s short-lived 2016 presidential campaign here.
To read the rest of “Rand Paul faults Congress for ‘too much compromise’ while stumping for King’s GOP foe,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Michael Shepherd, please follow this link to the BDN online.
