MAJORITY RULES

Although Democrats made large gains in the Maine House, their majority in the Senate shrank to just one seat. While Democrats in the House may feel emboldened to pass legislation, with or without Republican support, bills must still make it through the closely divided Senate to become law. This makes it incumbent on Democratic leaders, especially chairs of committees that will have fewer Republican members, to work with Republicans to pass legislation on tax reform, job creation, higher education funding and other important issues.

Like Democrats in Congress, Demo-crats in the Maine Legislature made unexpectedly large gains in the House of Representatives as a one-seat majority grew to 30, according to unofficial election results. In the Senate, Republicans picked up a seat, leaving Democrats with a one-seat majority. More important, however, the most extreme members of the Senate, on both the right and left, have left Augusta leaving a more moderate chamber that should make it easier to craft and pass legislation.

Outgoing House Speaker John Richardson has good advice for leaders of both chambers and parties. To Democrats in the House, he says: “Don’t get arrogant with 89 seats.” While he sees Democrats winning 89 out of 151 seats as an affirmation from voters of the party’s bipartisan successes, the supermajority cannot be used to push through extreme legislation. This is especially true because any bills passed by the House must still go through the closely divided Senate.

Speaker Richardson’s advice for Republicans is also apt: “Stay in the game.” When the parties work together, a better product emerges.

The same message comes from Senate President Beth Edmonds who is used to working with a small majority. In addition, she stressed committee chairs must keep in mind that solving problems, not partisan gain, is the goal and that past battles should not be refought.

Gov. John Baldacci has made property tax reform, hardly a centerpiece of the traditional Democratic agenda, a top priority. While Democrats have led the legislative debate on this issue, Republicans, such as Sen. Peter Mills, have contributed needed new solutions. Businesses leaders, traditionally identified with Republicans, have also played an important role in developing ways to lower taxes and control state spending.

As for why the Democrats picked up so many seats in the House, a few trends are evident. One was that incumbents, generally, were re-elected. With more Republicans than Democrats ousted from the Legislature because of term limits, the GOP had more open seats to try to fill. It lost many of these races.

In the Senate, by contrast, only Minority Leader Paul Davis was term limited. That seat remained in Republican hands. Of the three seats vacated by Republicans, including Chandler Woodcock in Farmington who was the Republican candidate for governor, two stayed with Republicans and one went to the Democrats. Three seats were vacated by Democratic senators with one turning over to the Republicans. One incumbent Democrat lost to a Republican.

Bipartisanship, already an overused buzzword, continues to be a priority at all levels in Augusta.