Olympia Snowe Better Watch Out

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Republican Paul LePage managed to eek out a victory in Maine’s gubernatorial race—a huge tea party triumph in one of the last outposts of moderate Republicanism. LePage had been leading for months by double-digits in the polls, but faced a stiff challenge from Independent Eliot Cutler, a former Democrat*, who closed the gap at the last minute. But LePage, who drew tremendous support from a tea party-backed grassroots movement, pulled it off—38 to Cutler’s 36.7 percent—to become the state’s first Republican governor in over a decade.

Cutler was emblematic of the kind of socially and fiscally moderate outlook that long characterized Maine politics—embodied in leaders like Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe. LePage, by contrast, campaigned as an unapologetically right-wing conservative who bashed global warming, welfare, and taxes in equal measure. In the final months of the campaign, LePage lashed out in a series of public ragefests that threatened to derail his candidacy as his opponents tried to portray him as an unhinged extremist. But LePage had built a grassroots army from the very beginning of his campaign and successfully capitalized upon his rough-hewn appeal and rags-to-riches biography, as I explained in my recent piece on his campaign.

And LePage wasn’t the only Republican upset in Maine last night: the GOP took over both the state House and Senate for the first time since in nearly three decades. The conservative revolt will not only strength LePage’s hand as governor, it will also put moderate members like Snowe and Collins on serious notice. Snowe, for one, is far more popular with Democrats and Independents in the state than Republicans, half of whom think she should become a Democrat. There’s growing speculation that Snowe could consider switching parties to become an Independent. Snowe’s already picked up a 2012 primary challenger and, judging by last night’s revolt, she’s doubtlessly thinking about her own survival.

*Correction: An earlier version of this post said Cutler as a former Republican. He is a former Democrat.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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