Last-Minute Attacks in Maine as Final Marriage Polling is Released

Note: Political director Corey Johnson and I will be live-blogging election results tomorrow evening here on the site. Please join us.

Protect Maine Equality is requesting donations in order to counter a last-minute attack and appeal for money from the "Yes on 1" people, who sent out an email blast asking fro money in order to buy air time for a new attack ad.

Writes Stand for Marriage Maine (the bad guys) in an email:

"Dear Question 1 Supporter,

We are so grateful for all your support, but I need to ask you one last time to please step up with a financial contribution so we can educate voters about a fast-breaking development that could be important to voters as they head to the polls on Tuesday.

Here's the situation:The latest example of how those in power in Maine schools will push homosexual marriage on students involves Don Mendell, a public school counselor who appeared in a Yes on Question 1 television ad. Mr. Mendell is a two-time recipient of the state Department of Education Commissioner's Recognition Award and was nominated as Maine State Teacher of the Year.

Despite a lifetime of service, a formal complaint was filed with the state seeking to have his license revoked. They say because Mr. Mendell spoke out in support of Question 1 he should not be allowed to counsel students anymore.We learned just Friday that the person who filed the complaint against Mr. Mendell works for a school principal who happens to be the husband of the gay activist teacher who appeared in a No on Question 1 commercial!

If this sort of thing can happen before homosexual marriage is even legalized, can you imagine what will happen once they have the law on their side?

Read the full letter, AFTER THE JUMP…

Jeremy Hooper parses the details at Good As You.

The final Public Policy Poll on marriage equality in Maine shows marriage equality losing, but still within the margin of error. It's going to be very close, folks.

Nate Silver offers an analysis of this latest polling: "All the polls show a very low number of undecideds, so like most close elections, it's a question of turnout. And the pollsters have different opinions about what turnout is liable to be. PPP has people under 45 representing about 38 percent of the electorate, whereas Research 2000 has them at 51 percent of the electorate. PPP's figures are a closer match for Maine's 2006 electorate, when 36 percent of voters were 45 or under.On the other hand, PPP shows conservatives outnumbering liberals 36-23, whereas those numbers have been about evenly split in exit polling of Maine's elections in 2004, 2006 and 2008. Were the liberal-conservative split to match 2006, for example, when Maine's electorate was 26 percent liberal, 26 percent conservative, and 48 percent moderate, then Question 1 would fail 46-53, according to PPP's internals.While an electorate that favorable to liberals might be somewhat unlikely in an off-year election, there is also not a lot of evidence that conservatives have the edge in terms of organization or enthusiasm. On the contrary, the No-on-1 campaign has received contributions from 9 times as many Mainers as the Yes-on-1 side, and Yes-on-1's messaging has been haphazard, to put it generously. With that said, the gay marriage question is one on which conservatives have typically had an enthusiasm advantage, although that may be changing, with conservatives devoting more of their energies to abortion and fiscal policy."

John Aravosis has a report from a candlelight vigil held in Portland last night (photo, top)for marriage equality.

The Washington Post wrote about the Maine marriage battle today. Governor John Baldacci thinks the victory is in the water:

"I believe it's something in the water or the air in this state thatrecognizes individual rights and anti-discrimination attitudes," thegovernor said by phone from Augusta, the capital. "It's more of alibertarian-type state than it is Republican or Democrat. We have twoRepublican senators, two Democratic representatives, and there havebeen two independent governors."

I hope he's right.

Read the full letter from Stand for Marriage Maine mentioned above, AFTER THE JUMP…

Here's the full letter from Stand for Marriage Maine (the BAD guys). Help Protect Maine Equality fight this attack by donating HERE.

Dear Question 1 Supporter,

We are so grateful for all your support, but I need to ask you one last time to please step up with a financial contribution so we can educate voters about a fast-breaking development that could be important to voters as they head to the polls on Tuesday. Here's the situation:

The latest example of how those in power in Maine schools will push homosexual marriage on students involves Don Mendell, a public school counselor who appeared in a Yes on Question 1 television ad. Mr. Mendell is a two-time recipient of the state Department of Education Commissioner's Recognition Award and was nominated as Maine State Teacher of the Year. Despite a lifetime of service, a formal complaint was filed with the state seeking to have his license revoked. They say because Mr. Mendell spoke out in support of Question 1 he should not be allowed to counsel students anymore.

We learned just Friday that the person who filed the complaint against Mr. Mendell works for a school principal who happens to be the husband of the gay activist teacher who appeared in a No on Question 1 commercial!

If this sort of thing can happen before homosexual marriage is even legalized, can you imagine what will happen once they have the law on their side? The message is unmistakable: It's fine to speak out if you support gay marriage, but if you speak out against it, they will punish you. It's just the latest example that if Question 1 fails and homosexual marriage is legalized, those in power in Maine schools will push it on students just as they are trying to punish one of Maine's best educators for supporting traditional marriage.

It is outrageous what is happening to Don Mendell. Voters need to hear about it, but we are out of money. We need to raise $25,000 right away so that we can buy more air time and inform voters about what is going on.

Will you please help us one more time?

Our polling shows the race to be very tight and there is evidence that undecided voters are starting to move our way. However, Question 1 could go either way depending on who actually votes. We've emptied our bank account to fund our get-out-the-vote campaign and pay for our advertising. If we can raise just $25,000 more in the next 48 hours, we can help make sure those remaining undecided voters hear about what is happening to this courageous school counselor who supports Question 1.

I know you have already sacrificed to help us, but please make a last-minute contribution right now so that we can make sure that every undecided voter knows about the latest consequence if Question 1 were to fail.

Thank you for everything you have done. Please don't forget to vote Yes on Question 1 on Tuesday and call all your friends to do so as well. And if you have not signed up to be an Election Day volunteer, there is still time to do so! Please email doug@standformarriagemaine.com to sign up!

Marc Mutty
Campaign Chairman