Here in Maine, we rejoice in a governor who came into office riding a tidal wave of 38% of the vote. He of course declared that he was thereby given a mandate, for Republicans appear to never be elected save that they have a mandate. Sadly, he doesn't seem to be a very clever fellow, but he is tenacious, and, as so many bullies, he Really Doesn't Like to be laughed at.
In fact, he hates to be laughed at so much that he stopped giving interviews to the press sometime during the summer. Given the tenor and quality of the governor's discourse, I can't help but think that this was wise.
When the November elections gave control of the Maine Senate to Democrats, the governor at first pledged to meet with them in the spirit of bi-partisanship. He then cancelled the meeting until the Democrats "called off" the cameraman whose job it is to record the governor's public speaking engagements. Given that the cameraman had been following the governor around for some number of months before he became a threat to bi-partisanship, this seems simply to be a ruse to allow the governor to ignore the majority of the legislators with whom he ought to be working.
But! The governor has lately understood that he must, in service of his mandate, reach out the people of Maine, even if he's not speaking to his Senate.
So, he's making and releasing a bunch of you-tube "interviews." You can .read about it here.
. . .I wonder how effective this is going to be -- where "effective" equals "wins Maine people to the governor's side and turns them against the mean Legislature"?