Democrats Who Want Lepage’s Job Take Aim At Top Spot In Primary Race

LEWISTON, Maine — The six other Democratic gubernatorial candidates didn’t mention Attorney General Janet Mills’ name or each other at the party’s state convention on Saturday, but Mills’ front-runner status in the June primary to replace term-limited Gov. Paul LePage loomed large. Attorney Adam Cote, state Sen. Mark Dion and lobbyist Betsy Sweet highlighted their support for the sovereignty of Maine Indian tribes — an issue on which progressives have hit Mills, who led the June 12 primary field in a poll released earlier this month by the Bangor Daily News. Mills played up clashes with the Republican governor at the Colisee in Lewiston on Saturday as Democrats make rural Maine a priority after losing ground in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District since LePage took office in 2010. “Today, right now and once and for all, reject the politics of fear and division and reaffirm in the politics of trust and hope and love,” she said. But she been targeted over the state’s position in support of a 2012 court ruling holding that the Penobscot Nation includes islands in the Penobscot River, but not the water itself.