Maine’s nasty campaign is finally over

I didn’t stay up very late watching election results last night, although Channel 7 in Bangor managed to irritate the hell out of me.
For some reason, they decided to run a crawl caption of partial results smack in the middle of the first episode of “V,” underscoring its reputation as the third-best outlet in a three-station market.
By 2 a.m., however, the results were pretty solid.
Aside from the contentious Question 1, conservatives took a serious whipping in the state.
Question 1 asked voters to overturn a gay marriage law passed by the Legislature. They did, but not by much. Some supporters called it a landslide. It wasn’t, but it was pretty decisive.
Elsewhere, voters showed they were perfectly happy with one of the nation’s highest excise tax laws and didn’t want to put any more caps on municipal spending.
More loopholes were opened up for pot smokers, the convoluted school consolidation law was affirmed and more money was passed for road construction and repair.
And here’s a real head-scratcher. Even though there were seven referendum questions on this year’s ballot, voters refused to pass a constitutional amendment to allow town clerks more time to certify petition signatures. Go figure.
The gay marriage campaign was one of the most expensive off-year referenda in years and one of the nastiest I can remember.
Both sides ran misleading TV commercials and the phone banks irritated thousands of people through their robocalls.
I usually hang up when the phone rings and its so-and-so urging me to get out and vote for something or someone. By the time the calls arrive, I’ve read and heard enough about the issue.
Anti-gay marriage “Yes on 1” signs were vandalized all over the place. I saw many of them with a “No” spray-painted over the “Yes.”
Both sides got into a squirting contest about how much out-of-state money was coming into the state to promote their cause. The answer: plenty, on both sides. I think the “No one 1” committee spent about $4 million. The “Yes on 1” doesn’t like to talk about it’s influx of cash.
Voter turnout was higher than expected, forcing some state elections officials to admit they screwed up by downplaying voter interest. Some towns had up to 60 percent of their voting population show up.
In any case, I’m glad it’s over. I’m tired of the TV commercials, the barrage of pop-ups on the Internet and the newspaper ads.
I made my mind about gay marriage a long time ago. It didn’t make sense then, and still doesn’t. But you couldn’t tell that to the Maine Legislature. They passed the bill easily.
Within a few months, 100,000 people signed a petition to send the question directly to the voters. That was a wake-up call. Tuesday’s results were equivalent to a swift kick in the ass.
On the other hand, another version of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights or TABOR went down in flames along with attempts to decrease the annual automotive excise tax and repeal the school consolidation law. These were pet projects of the dwindling number of Maine conservatives.
The national media is making a big deal out of the Maine vote as well as the election of Republican governors in New Jersey and Virginia. I’m not. Maine’s vote only shows how quirky and unpredictable we are.
We’re also seriously divided demographically and geographically.
Southern Maine is Northern Massachusetts with lobster. Portland voters went 70 percent for gay marriage.
The direct opposite was true in Northern Maine, better known as Canada South.
Make something out of that, CNN and Fox News.