Maine Democrats Question Timing of Trahan Resignation

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http://www.mpbn.net/Home/tabid/36/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3478/ItemId/17501/Default.aspx
Democratic Party leaders are questioning the timing of the announced resignation of a Republican state senator who has been tapped as the new executive director of the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine (SAM). State Senator David Trahan (R-Waldoboro) will leave the Senate in December. Democratic state chairman Ben Grant says Trahan's decision precludes the option of holding a special election for his seat at the same time as a fall referendum. He says that could leave Lincoln county residents without a senator for the first half of the next legislative session.

Trahan says he plans to accept the executive director's post at the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine on October 3, he does not plan to leave the Senate until December. Trahan says he wants to stay on during the fall to co-chair the Legislature's Taxation Commiittee as it looks at possibly crafting some tax reform proposals. If he resigned on October 3, it could be possible to schedule a special election to fill his seat on November 8, the same day as the statewide ballot. But Ben Grant, the chair of the Maine Democratic Party, says that's an option that Maine Republicans want to avoid.

"The November election is going to contain some other issues that are going to be wildly unpopular for any Republican who attaches themselves to them," said Grant.

He expects that his party will be able to get the signatures needed to place a people's veto of a Republican-backed repeal of the state's same-day voter registration law on the November ballot. That issue, he says, is galvanizing a lot of opposition for Republicans that could be directed to the election of a Democratic candidate in Senate District 20.

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