Congressman Jared Golden has stirred up a late-summer kerfuffle with a social media post concerning his earlier vote against President Biden’s student loan debt relief package.
Maine’s 2nd District representative was one of only two House Democrats to oppose the plan — later struck down by the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority — and he was, in contemporary parlance, “doubling down,” eliciting both praise and derision.
That’s no mean feat, given a former president’s never-ending indictments and the press’s obsession about his position in Republican polling that’s taking up most of the available bandwidth.
Golden is reasonably sound on the issue itself. Since the days of the Confederation and the Constitutional Convention, debt repudiation — what Biden proposed — has been a constitutional no-no.
On a practical level, as Golden points out, if we’re going to cancel college loan debt, what about car loans and mortgages for young people who are, with pandemic disruptions, also struggling to repay? Are they less worthy of governmental concern?
Golden’s supporters seem not to have read the tweet itself, though — if that’s what we still call missives on Elon Musk’s weirdly renamed “X.”
It begins, “Sadly, this is what radical leftist elites are learning about ‘democracy’ these days — silence and destroy anyone who disagrees with your views or goals.”
Let’s stop there. How is anyone advocating for debt cancellation, or even criticizing Golden harshly, attempting to “silence” or “destroy” him?
The language is Trumpian, and provides the usual projection and reversal of reality. It’s the other side trying to steal the election; any attempt to enforce the law is a “witch hunt” by definition.
Suffice it to say that none of Maine’s other delegation members — Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins, and 1st District Rep. Chellie Pingree — would say anything like this.
Sneering at your constituents is normally beyond the pale. But Golden has marched to a different drummer ever since, in 2018, he unseated incumbent Republican Bruce Poliquin in the first and only federal election to date where ranked-choice voting determined the outcome.
To say he carries a chip on his shoulder is an understatement. He takes pride in opposing Democratic Party positions, and never voted for Nancy Pelosi as speaker — the most capable House leader Democrats have had in decades.
Fortunately, Pelosi never needed Golden’s vote, and she further confirmed his error by voluntarily giving up her leadership position in 2022 — the first Democratic leader to step down for non-health reasons since George Mitchell departed as Senate majority leader in 1994.
No one mistakes Golden for a Republican; Speaker Kevin McCarthy wouldn’t return his calls. But the top Democrat in the House, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, wouldn’t be eager to, either.
Yet it’s also clear Golden has set his sights higher than his current seat, seeking to parlay his success in a Trump-leaning district into something more.
There’s an entire generation, and more, between Golden and the rest of the delegation. King is 79, Collins 70, Pingree 68 — and Golden just 41.
There’s another young Democrat coming up on the rail, though, who could break into the limelight at the first opportunity: Shenna Bellows, now 48.
Bellows made a respectable novice bid against Collins in 2014, and starting in 2016 won three state Senate elections in a swing district. She then pulled off an intricate maneuver to become legislators’ choice as secretary of state, using the office more effectively than anyone since Ken Curtis employed it as a springboard to the governorship.
Among other smart moves, she whisked a new license plate design through the Legislature — the pine tree-and-star — at the same time similar change in the state flag became bogged down. Ultimately, Gov. Janet Mills delayed that compromise referendum measure to 2024 where it will probably become a divisive partisan football.
Bellows’ approach is very different from Golden’s. While in no one’s pocket — she talks often about her own working-class upbringing — she hews more to traditional liberal positions, and feels no need to slam anyone.
Unfortunately for both Golden and Bellows, Maine has an incredible dearth of statewide elective offices — just three, governor and two U.S. Senate seats.
Mills is term-limited in 2026 and it’s possible Collins will finally have had enough after her bruising 2020 campaign, in which case we’d have a rare two-fer.
If not, we may have a contrast in political styles, although, given recent experience, Golden would have a leg up in a Senate race, while Bellows, working more closely with the Legislature, might have the edge for governor.
There will, of course, be dozens of potential candidates, whose supporters will be talking them up before you know it. But at least for Democrats, these are the two to watch.
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