By Ray Cardello for November 20, 2025, Season 33 / Post 20

We love Maine and have a year-round home in Central Maine that we spend half our time in. We have an incredible circle of friends and have found a church that has become a big part of our lives. Maine is blessed with location and natural resources: a beautiful rocky coast, majestic mountains for hiking and skiing, and serene lakes and ponds for boating or swimming, but it also has a dark side that prevents us from making it our permanent home. It is cursed with a predominantly Democratic government and one of the highest tax burdens in the country. The folks who work in the state house in Augusta or in the hundreds of town halls that pepper the state cannot work fast enough to mismanage money, raise taxes, and send people and businesses scrambling to Tennessee or Florida. It is not just the inept government, but it is the corruption that openly permeates the state and has a grip on every significant player in the Pine Tree State. These players are concerned with improving lives; unfortunately, they are improving their own lives at the cost of a better life for the average Mainer.

Three particular policies or misguided initiatives that are impacting Maine are the quest by Governor Mills to open Maine to as many illegal migrants as possible. It is not that we need an influx of people to fill job openings, because there are not many to fill, but the money from Washington that follows each of these people has piqued the interest of the outgoing Governor. Mills has served her maximum two terms in Augusta, but has turned her interest to Senator Susan Collins’ seat, which is up for election in 2026. Even at the age of 77, Mills is not ready for retirement and wants to hold onto the power that comes from having an elected position. The thousands of illegals who have relocated to Maine have wreaked havoc on an already saturated housing market. Trump is working to stop federal monies that are subsidizing illegal housing, and this effort has made Mills apoplectic. She has vowed to fight to keep these funds.

Mills has shown no interest in shutting down the Chinese drug cartel, as they have developed nearly 300 illegal marijuana grow houses throughout the state. It does not help her image that her brother’s name appears on multiple documents showing that he has helped the Chinese procure blocks of property that can be converted into grow houses and cash flow factories for the Chinese. In comparison, there are 270 known Chinese Pot Farms and only 164 Dunkin’ Donuts in Maine.

The last issue is the Democrats’ obsession with creating a sanctuary state for protecting illegal migrants and the manufacture of chemically infused marijuana and also a free space for adulys looking for additional knowledge on firearms, a place where adolescents seeking abortion and transgender care can come and be free of parental objection. That position does not make the Maine Democrats champions of family values, but that is fine with them.

The progressive ideas of the power people of Maine have no apparent plan for a better Maine in the future, and it makes you question what their plan is when Maine finally hits rock bottom. Recovery will be much more complex and expensive than the haphazard plan we are witnessing today.