Legislature convenes in spirit of civility > Senate president: Honor diversity, avoid blandness

AUGUSTA – Maine Senate President Michael Michaud urged his 34 colleagues Wednesday to respect each other’s differences and set the standard for civility in a legislative session where the political divisions are razor thin.

After four years, Democrats lost the majority last month in the Senate, which is now composed of 17 Democrats, 17 Republicans and one independent, Jill Goldthwait, of Bar Harbor. Last week, the Senate endorsed a plan which would give Michaud, an East Millinocket Democrat, the presidency and expand the powers of Senate president pro tem, a position to be held by Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Norway, during the first year of the two-year session. The two men will switch roles in the second year of the session.

Goldthwait, who will be the tie breaker when Senate votes split along party lines, has accepted the Senate chairmanship of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee, which controls the purse strings for the state budget.

During the formal proceedings Wednesday, the Maine Senate elected its officers, established joint rules and performed its traditional rituals associated with the organization of the new session that will be Maine’s 120th Legislature. Michaud, a mill worker from a working-class family in East Millinocket, is a 10-term lawmaker with experience in both the House and Senate. While he asked the senators to practice civility, he asked them not to confuse civility with “blandness.”

“Civility is not everyone thinking the same way,” Michaud said. “We are all different. We come from different parts of the state. We have different values. We belong to different political parties and there is nothing wrong with any of this. Because with diversity comes strength. From passionate beliefs comes commitment. We are all here because we care deeply. And because we care deeply, we will inevitably and sincerely disagree.”

Bennett said his basic goals as Senate president pro tem and later, president, would be to empower every member of the Senate over the next two years, to enhance public participation in the work of the Legislature and to leave the Maine Senate “a stronger and better” institution.

“The greatness of this opportunity [to serve in the Senate] will not be manifested in negativism,” Bennett said. “Rather, it will be seen that in the difficult, sometimes elusive search for common ground, we must realize that we all have the same goals, we all care about the same issues and we must work together to find common solutions.”

In other business, the Senate elected Joy O’Brien, a Portland Democrat, to serve as secretary of the Senate and Pam Cahill, a former Republican state senator from Woolwich, to serve as assistant secretary of the Senate.