Several months ago, I noted that conservatives in Maine have plenty of options to reach the governor’s office. Unfortunately, no clear conservative candidate has fully broken out.  Once could say that there are several good conservative options, who say all the “right” things.  Matthew Gagnon of Pinetree Politics thinks, and I agree, that it’s because that’s *all* they’re saying on TV:

[W]hy when there are going to be 6 other candidates who say essentially the exact same thing, is anyone even wasting the money on these ads? They certainly don’t distinguish one candidate from another.  They may marginally raise name ID I suppose, but that is about it.  Airing “priority” ads won’t really move you to the front of the line in a primary like this, since essentially every single Republican shares the same priorities.

This is the year to make the hard case for what really needs to be done, and those with ads out already have not done so.  However, I think this is because the candidates most likely to make such a case have not aired TV ads.  Waterville Mayor Paul LePage, business counsultant Matt Jacobson, and retired Huson University president Bill Beardsley have had a limited media presence, but have published opinions closest to Tea Party sentiments.  LePage and Jacobson seem to be concentrating more on New Media, with regular Facebook posts among other things.

LePage also seems to have the support of much of Maine’s TeaParty movement and is a frequent speaker at these rallies.  Partially due to that support, he has won many county Republican County-Caucus straw polls, but is invisible anywhere else.

Jacobson has aired one radio ad and is the most prolific candidate on Facebook, but again, is invisible anywhere else.

Bill Beardsley entered the race late, and has just now started a campaign theme with radio ads.  He also worked in the Alaska Department of Commerce in the early 80s.  I don’t know what @Achance knows about him….

All three seem to be good conservative candidates, but have not appeared on TV.  TV is expensive, and they’re running against the Establishment(Collins’ Chief-O’S) Steve Abbot or State Senator Peter Mills, and two largely self-funded millionaires in Les Otten and Bruce Poliquin.  As a result, the GOP brand is further tarnished by a bunch of moderate squishes.

Politics in Maine is fractured, obviously.  There was even a recent proposal to split the state in two, between the rural north and Boston-lite south.  When the factions are factioned as they are in this race, a bold leader needs to step forward and say the tough-but-needed things.   Good ideas will be rallying points, bad ones will winnow the field early, providing an opportunity for unity.   The race will be decided clearly on good or bad ideas, instead of each candidate slinking toward the finish-line.  The “big” candidates need to grow a collectve spine.  The Conservative candidates need to bit the bullet and unite, or at least realize the need to pony up for *more* than grass-roots.