Following the money in Maine's 2nd U.S. House District race

As regular readers have probably gathered, I'm doing a lot of the political finance coverage for the Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram and its sister papers. There's a fresh heap of data to explore, with both federal and Maine state candidates, PACs, and ballot committees having recently filed fresh returns.

Today's story in the Telegram looks at the money in Maine's Second Congressional District race. The general election will almost certainly pit state senate president Kevin Raye (a relatively moderate Republican) against incumbent Mike Michaud (a Blue Dog Democrat) in a rematch of their 2004 race. It's expected to be the most closely contested of the three federal races on the ballot in November. Article abstract: Michaud has a significant advantage accounted for by contributions from PACs, though that's not all that unusual for an incumbent,

The U.S. Senate is an arcane institution and, unlike the House, doesn't require candidates to post their campaign finance disclosures electronically, so there's usually a delay in gathering them all. (We asked all Senate candidates here in Maine to send us their full reports once they filed them, but only three -- Angus King, Charlie Summers, and Bill Schneider -- did so. Why anyone would refuse to provide a public document we'll all obtain shortly is something of a mystery but, rest assured, there will be attention paid to them later.)

My Washington Post review of Rutkow's "American Canopy"

My review of Eric Rutkow's debut book, American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation, will be in the Washington Post's Outlook Section tomorrow. For those outside the Capital region, it's also available online.

For those looking for additional reading selections, my most recent reviews for the Post were of E.O Wilson's The Social Conquest of Earth and David Hackett Fisher's Fairness and Freedom.

Also thanks to all those who attended yesterday's benefit for Maine author Cynthia Thayer at Portland's Longfellow Books. Was a pleasure meeting you all, and I gather it was a successful event.

[Update, 6/10/12: The Denver Post picked up this review today as well.]

[Update, 6/17/12: Ditto for the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette and Austin American-Statesman.]

Maine: Quebec and East-West Highway; prominent campaign donors

I have two short stories in today's Portland Press Herald.

In the first, we check in with officials in Quebec to see what they are thinking in regards to the proposed East-West Highway and the "missing link" from the Quebec border to the nearest existing highway at Sherbrooke. Short answer: it's not really on their radar screen. (For more on East-West highway issue, consider this feature in the Maine Sunday Telegram last week.)

The second is an early take on donations to Maine's US Senate and House hopefuls, as shown in early returns for the latest reporting deadline yesterday. My piece highlights a few prominent Mainers and who they're giving to. My colleague John Richardson has a round-up of the money totals thus far. More details to come.

Sen. Collins absence allows Pentagon biofuels ban to advance

The US Defense Department is in the midst of a series of pilot projects to reduce the military's fossil fuel needs. Under the Operational Energy Strategy program, the Pentagon has been installing solar panels at remote bases in war zones and experimenting with the substitution of various biofuels in aircraft and the escort vessels of aircraft carrier groups.

The biofuels programs are under fire from Congressional Republicans on account of their additional upfront cost. The GOP-controlled House passed measures to effectively kill them earlier this year, but it is expected to have trouble in the U.S. Senate, which is controlled by Democrats.

Nonetheless, similar measures passed a key Senate committee by a single vote on May 24. Which brings us to today's story.

Earlier this week, Politico's Morning Defense flagged a perplexing development: according to roll call votes, the measures passed the Armed Services Committee because of the sudden and unexplained absence of Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) who has said she supports the biofuels effort. What happened? Read what I was able to learn in today's Portland Press Herald or the (front page of the) Kennebec Journal.

Maine's East-West Highway: savior or albatross?

My story in today's Maine Sunday Telegram explores the proposed East-West Highway plan, a $2 billion private toll road connecting Calais/St.Stephen, NB with Coburn Gore and south-Central Quebec. At this writing, it's the most read story on the newspaper's website today.

As you'll see, whether the plan appears to be a good idea or not has a lot to do with your mind set and frame of reference.

There's also a companion story from my colleague Tux Turkel on why the highway's promoter, Cianbro head Peter Vigue, travels with bodyguards.

For fellow policy wonks, I'll be adding a few documents to this post when I have an extra few minutes this weekend.

[Update, 6/5/12: An update on the Quebec angle to this story.]

Obama and Appalachia, Obama and King

Amongst political denizens, Barack Obama's surprisingly narrow margins of victory in Democratic presidential primaries in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Arkansas have been the talk of the day. Needless to say, the American Nations paradigm would predict precisely this outcome.

Yesterday, to my pleasure, the blog world took notice.

First, The New Republic's Alec MacGillis blogged on what American Nations has to say about Obama's "Greater Appalachia problem".

I chimed in with an extra cent or two on Romney's shared weakness -- and links to the "nations map" -- over at Washington Monthly.

And then Andrew Sullivan -- who has one of the most read political blogs in the country at The Daily Beast -- flagged the TNR piece. This morning Politico's Charles Mahtesian joined in, with links back to my map here at World Wide Woodard.

Meanwhile, I was reporting out this story at the Portland Press Herald

on the low-intensity conflict over Maine independent US Senate candidate Angus King's political donations to Obama. (It was also quickly picked up by Politico's Mahtesian, undoubtedly unaware he'd made two Woodard posts in 24 hours.)

Not a bad day, digitally speaking.

Speaking on oceans, Rockland, Maine, May 24th

For those near the western shores of Maine's Penobscot Bay, I'll be joining Graham Shimmield, executive director of the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, for a special Café Scientifique at the Strand Theatre, 345 Main Street in Rockland, at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 24.

Shimmield and I will be discussing the problems facing the world's oceans -- topic of my first book, Ocean's End:Travels Through Endangered Seas -- and their importance to human lives. Billed as "a conversation between a scientist and a journalist", it will open up to bring the audience into the conversation as well. Should be fun and, hopefully, informative, so come by if you're in the area.

Here's a write up from the local Free Press.