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What they write about

The Maine Democratic Party's US Senate prospects
Thanks for coming to my power-point presentation.

By: AL DIAMON | February 15, 2012

Building the perfect beast

America Elects
There are a few acceptable reasons for keeping your identity a secret.

By: AL DIAMON | February 08, 2012

Energy prices – and sources
A few months after the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, my wife and I were wandering around the eastern part of that city and came upon a little antique shop, where the last vestiges of the old Communist ways were slowly being flushed out, much to the owner's dismay.

By: AL DIAMON | February 01, 2012

Don't let them take control

Maine's counties
There are worse things than Maine's antiquated system of county government.

By: AL DIAMON | January 25, 2012

Dead man walking

A funeral for The Maine Clean Election Act
It should have been a somber moment, but the awful shouting intruded on the funeral service.

By: AL DIAMON | January 18, 2012

It might never happen

Democrat domination
The Very Smart People have proclaimed that the Democratic Party is about to reclaim control of the Maine House of Representatives.

By: AL DIAMON | January 11, 2012

Bad as me

The Law of Low Expectations
I'm an economist in much the same sense that I'm commissioner of the National Football League.

By: AL DIAMON | January 04, 2012

What were you hoping for?

LePage's year
In his first year as governor, Republican Paul LePage did a decent job.

By: AL DIAMON | December 28, 2011

Indestructible machine

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services
The weird thing about the Maine Department of Health and Human Services is not that it wastes enormous amounts of taxpayer money. It's that it doesn't have any fun doing it.

By: AL DIAMON | December 21, 2011

Night of the Living Newt

Mitt Romney has money, organization, and great hair — but Newt Gingrich has the nastiness Republicans have come to expect from top conservatives
Newt Gingrich held court earlier this week at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics (NHIOP) at Saint Anselm College, as a throng of local and national media swarmed to watch him participate in an event of his own creation.

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | December 15, 2011

Having a ball

The Clean Election Act
For my birthday, a friend bought me a baseball cap with the letters "TR" on the front. That stands for Templeton Rye, my favorite whiskey. But the first time I wore it, some idiot in a bar accused me of being a Texas Rangers fan.

By: AL DIAMON | December 14, 2011

Long term plan

Maine Legislature in 2012
Since you're reading this column, I assume you're a person well-versed in the important matters facing this state, or else you're insanely bored and found my stuff marginally more entertaining than the legal notices.

By: AL DIAMON | December 07, 2011

Three the hard way

Gubernatorial candidates
The current field of Democratic gubernatorial candidates consists of one who's already run unsuccessfully, one who's a member of the 1 percent of rich and powerful Americans the Occupy Maine movement is protesting, and one who's sort of loopy.

By: AL DIAMON | November 30, 2011

Doesn't add up

Ranked-choice voting
Ranked-choice voting "would ensure not only that the most popular candidate wins an election, but also that he or she wins by a clear majority of the voters," said Jim Brunelle, Portland Press Herald columnist, on August 13, 2004.

By: AL DIAMON | November 23, 2011

Twenty years on

Looking back on two decades of columns
There are topics that are even more boring than a columnist writing about how long he's been a columnist.

By: AL DIAMON | November 16, 2011

The wrong words

Putting Maine To Work's approach
In the past month, a political action committee called Putting Maine To Work has sent me so many brochures that I no longer need to worry about putting myself to work.

By: AL DIAMON | November 09, 2011

Man with a load of mischief

Casinos: money and morals
According to the Maine Sunday Telegram, gambling is OK in Biddeford or Washington County, but if it happens in Lewiston, it's pure evil.

By: AL DIAMON | November 02, 2011

Creature from the Black Lagoon

Tax reform: it's downright scary
I don't believe in ghosts. Or vampires. Or werewolves. Or other mythical creatures, such as Republican US Senate candidate Scott D'Amboise.

By: AL DIAMON | October 26, 2011

Tourist trap

State budgeting
To hear the experts talk, you'd think reducing the state budget by up to $100 million is a task only slightly less difficult than walking into a ritzy ocean-side restaurant without a reservation on a tourist-clogged Saturday night in the summer and expecting to score a table by a window.

By: AL DIAMON | October 19, 2011