New Maine Focus Group Results Show Support for Progressive Ideas from the Legislature

Recently concluded focus groups built on polling conducted last year and reveal Mainers strongly support many of the policies the state legislature has recently passed or considered with residents most supportive of legislation to make prescription drugs more affordable, ones that will hold pharmaceutical companies accountable for the opioid crisis, and establishing more protections for workers.

As the 2019 legislative session came to a close, SiX commissioned Lincoln Park Strategies to conduct a poll to gauge voters’ feelings on the progress of the legislative session. To build on that knowledge, SiX commissioned focus groups of Mainers prior to the 2020 legislative session to gauge swing residents’ feelings about the state’s future and their views on the legislative leadership’s policy agenda. One thing is clear: Mainers are looking for solutions to their everyday problems and largely support the progressive ideas the legislature has passed and considered. 

Mainers are most worried about issues around healthcare, especially access to quality and affordable care, the cost of prescription drugs, and opioid abuse.

Voters are also very worried about job opportunities in the state, the cost of higher education, property taxes, income tax fairness, access to quality education, and climate change.

See analysis here and results here.

Mainers Concerned About Economy and Health Care, Support the Recent Actions Taken in the 2019 Legislative Session

A recent poll commissioned by the State Innovation Exchange (SiX) shows Mainers are concerned about pocketbook economic issues, the affordability of health care, and education. Mainers also support recent state legislative actions to address these issues and the direction Maine is going after the 2019 legislative session.

Legislators took significant steps in the 2019 session to address the concerns of Mainers and this polling demonstrates ongoing support for progressive policy solutions to the problems facing the state.

Mainers Support Action on Economic Concerns

On a scale of 1 to 10, voters supported legislative action to: 

Voters Support Action on Health Care 

Maine voters prioritize action on health care with a focus on affordability and addressing the opioid epidemic. On a scale of 1 to 10, voters supported legislative action to: 

Mainers Support Action on Education

Maine voters are concerned about the affordability of higher education and support action to increase access to early childhood education. On a scale of 1 to 10, voters supported legislative action to:

Click here to see the poll memo and here for a presentation on full results.

###

The State Innovation Exchange commissioned Lincoln Park Strategies to complete the research.  The survey was conducted June 14 to June 20 with 600 respondents and has a margin of error ± 4 percent at the 95% confidence interval.

Maine sees big wins in 2019

The 2019 Maine legislative session adjourned on June 20 with several wins for working people—including on health care, civil rights, incomes, paid leave, reproductive rights, and democracy reform.

Medicaid Expansion

Conservatives have denied Mainers access to Medicaid expansion for years, even over the wishes of voters. When Governor Mills took office in 2019, she promised that fully funding and implementing expansion would be her first action. Together with progressive legislators, many of whom had been fighting for Medicaid expansion for years, Governor Mills delivered on her promise and fully funded and implemented the measure. Nearly 70,000 Mainers will now gain health care access.

Equal Pay for Equal Work

Although blatant gender discrimination is technically against the law in Maine, there are still many less obvious practices that continue to perpetuate the gender and racial wage gap. Senator Cathy Breen and Representative Mark Bryant championed legislation to level the playing field for all employees when negotiating salaries. The new law prevents employers from requiring applicants to disclose their previous salaries. That way, a new salary offer is not based on salary history, but instead on experience, skills, and the job role. The measure ensures that instances of inequitable pay do not follow employees  for their entire careers, which is especially important for women, people of color, and others who are typically underpaid.

Conversion Therapy Banned

Maine’s previous governor vetoed legislation last year to ban “conversion therapy,” a discredited and harmful practice. But sponsor Rep. Ryan Fecteau, now Assistant House Majority Leader, came back this year to fight again. The bill prevents licensed health care professionals from offering services that claim to change a client’s sexual orientation or gender identity to minors. This dangerous practice causes adverse effects in children, including depression, anxiety and drug use. Conversion therapy is already banned in many states and nearly all professional licensing organizations have condemned the practice.

Paid Time Off

A long-time champion for workers, Senator Rebecca Millett continued to fight for paid sick leave after several years of the legislation falling short in divided legislatures. Although the bill did not pass in its original form, the final version will grant paid time off for any reason to 85% of Maine’s private sector workers. Before this bill, 139,000 Maine workers have had no access to paid time off at all, and another 137,000 could not take time for any reason other than illness. 

Automatic Voter Registration (AVR)

On the final day of session, Governor Mills signed Speaker Sara Gideon’s bill to bring automatic voter registration to Maine. Eligible voters who visit the Bureau of Motor Vehicles will soon be registered to vote, or have their voting addresses updated, by default, unless they opt-out. And new agencies may join the system later on to expand AVR’s impact. This is an important step for Maine’s democracy—lowering a systemic barrier to the ballot box and modernizing outdated government processes.

Prescription Drugs

Senate President Troy Jackson, Assistant Majority Leader Senator Eloise Vitelli, and Senator Heather Sanborn have each sponsored parts of a larger package of bills aimed at lowering the prohibitive cost of prescription drugs. Legislation that ultimately passed will create a prescription drug affordability board, which would oversee and set targets for prescription drug costs for public entities; initiate a wholesale importation program to allow importation from Canada; provide more information and transparency about drug pricing all along the supply chain, and reduce the influence of pharmacy benefit managers to drive up prescription costs.

Reproductive Rights

This session saw huge gains for reproductive health access in Maine. Speaker Gideon passed a bill to allow Advanced Practice Clinicians to perform abortions, meaning that many rural women can have their local providers perform the procedure instead of traveling long distances and receive the same quality and safety. Representative Jay McCreight, another of Maine’s strongest reproductive rights champions, passed a bill to require insurance, including Medicaid, to cover abortion care. Representative Maureen “Mo” Terry’s passed a bill to allow over-the-counter prescriptions in vending machines, so now women on college campuses can have access to emergency contraception outside of traditional pharmacy hours.  

Earned Income Tax Credit and Closing Corporate Tax Loopholes

Representative Ryan Tipping’s bill to raise the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit passed in the final hours of session, giving approximately 100,000 low-income households in Maine a much-needed boost. The bill more than doubles the current rate and achieves this by closing loopholes on large out-of-state corporations.

Student Debt Bill of Rights

Senator Eloise Vitelli passed a bill to help level the playing field for student loan borrowers. The bill establishes standards to prevent student loan servicing companies from misleading borrowers and creates the “Student Loan Ombudsman” to help borrowers navigate problems with servicers.

Legislator Spotlight: Maine Rep. Ryan Fecteau 

Maine Rep. Ryan Fecteau HeadshotTo honor and acknowledge June as LGBT Pride Month, SiX is highlighting the work and leadership on issues affecting LGBT communities with a Member Spotlight of Rep. Ryan Fecteau from Maine. Across the country, state legislators are introducing bans on the practice of so-called “conversion therapy” which seeks to change a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation. Rep. Fecteau championed a conversion therapy ban for minors in Maine this session, which after successful votes in the House and the Senate is still awaiting a few final procedural hurdles to passage. 

Rep. Fecteau lives in Biddeford, Maine, and represents the 11th legislative district in the Maine House of Representatives. SiX recently spoke to him about his work to ban exposing minors to conversion therapy, a cruel and outdated practice that seeks to change one’s sexual orientation. Watch Rep. Fecteau’s speech on the House floor about his personal connection to the legislation here.  

What originally made you want to run for office? 

I discovered the power of change making and grassroots advocacy when I was a senior in high school. Biddeford High School was, quite literally, falling apart. There was water infiltration, an entire facade leaking energy, and furniture purchased in the 1960s. The city council was considering a $34 million renovation bond proposal and it needed approval from a majority of Biddeford voters. So, though I would not ultimately benefit from the proposal's passage, I led fellow students in a campaign to show our community what it was like to go to a school in disrepair. The proposal earned the support of two out of three voters in Biddeford.  

In 2014, I graduated from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and decided to run for the open state house seat in Biddeford. I did so with seniors and young people in mind. Maine is one of the oldest states in the nation. And while our population grows older, too many young people, including many of my friends, leave for opportunities elsewhere. Young people leaving has consequences for seniors. The state funds health coverage, prescription drug cost reduction, heating assistance, and much more for our seniors. In order to fund such programs, there needs to be a population that is working and contributing to the wellbeing of our entire citizenry. As a 21-year-old at the time of my first election, I felt like I could bring a unique perspective to solving these issues in a legislature with an average age of 55. 

What have you found was the most unexpected or rewarding part about becoming a legislator? 

It was certainly not unexpected, because I discovered it knocking doors and talking to voters over the phone during the election: the human connection. I have the opportunity every single day to be a champion for the people in my community. There is nothing more rewarding than helping someone solve a problem or propel their solution. 

You have been working to ban conversion therapy in Maine. Why is this an important issue to you? Tell us about sharing your personal story on the House floor. 

In 2012, I met with a school administrator, a man I trusted, about my work with a student group to combat the high rates of suicide by LGBTQ youth. We had met many times before, but this time the tone shifted dramatically. “Suicide affects everyone, not just LGBTQ people,” the administrator declared, as though the student LGBT group’s argument that administrators should support its existence to help combat the higher rates of rejection-fueled suicide in the LGBTQ community was divisive. He abruptly continued, “One day, I hope you’ll see beyond your gay identity and take in what life has to offer you.” I was stunned into silence. The administrator added, “I recommend you read Beyond Gay by David Morrison.”  

I left the meeting, sprinted across campus to my friends, and together we Google-searched the book. The description was a gut punch.  My confidence in this administrator evaporated and was replaced by feelings of fear and self-loathing. The recommended book encouraged “reparative therapy,” otherwise known as so-called “conversion therapy.” I wrote in an email to a friend, “I spent the next night crying. I am not one to shed tears often, let alone cry hysterically. Yet on this night, the night before returning home for summer break, I cried hysterically in the arms of my friends.”  

I returned to the university in the fall and continued to lead the student LGBTQ organization.  I carried the weight of that earlier meeting and struggled with mental exhaustion. Winter break arrived and my dad came to pick me up. Looking out the window, as trees flew by on the highway, I, for the first time in my life, contemplated my continued existence. I had this internal discussion, almost as if there were two voices, concerning whether or not I ought to be alive. It tormented me for the duration of winter break. I was an openly gay young man who was finding my way in life, who had found the guts to come out to my parents, and the confidence to lead a LGBTQ student organization, become student body president, and work as paid staff on a marriage equality campaign. But I could not shake the self-hatred, unworthiness and haunting message that I was broken after this trusted university administrator told me, in essence, to seek “reparative therapy”—to be “beyond gay.”  

I spent a long time denying that I had this experience. There is nothing more painstaking than to admit that you’ve contemplated suicide. It was only something I had said aloud to someone a few times before presenting this bill to my colleagues in Augusta. I am so lucky and grateful to have persevered with the help of so many other supportive persons in my life. I am so thankful to be in Augusta, as a state legislator, to advocate for the bill, because I know there are young people who are far more vulnerable than I was back then. I want to protect them from the harm that would come from a trusted professional telling them, one way or another, that they are broken, that the core truth of who they are is wrong and even disgusting. 

What reaction did you receive for sharing your story? 

I was overwhelmed by words of encouragement from my colleagues in the House. Unfortunately, the tone of the floor debate overall was bitter. It was the most gut-wrenching day I've experienced as a legislator. At one point, a Republican lawmaker declared gay people performed "unnatural acts." It concluded with a completely partisan vote.  

What additional issues are you most passionate about? 

I am passionate about career and technical education. The days of funneling every high school student into a “college or bust” mentality must end, especially in Maine. We have industries where workers are quickly nearing retirement age. One of the issues I heard on the campaign trail in 2016 most often was, "I can't get a plumber to do this small job." There are good-paying industries with huge needs. Maine is lucky to have 16 career and technical education schools connected to our high schools. Unfortunately, we have not made a statewide investment in these schools since 1998. I've sponsored legislation to do so. 

Anything else you would like readers to know? What's a fun fact about yourself readers may not know?

I have this awesome four-legged daughter named Pancake and she is waiting for her chance to succeed me in the legislature. 

Follow Pancake and Rep. Fecteau on Facebook at  @Fecteau4Biddeford and Twitter at @Fecteau4Biddeford