Close to 200 Lincoln County Democratic Party volunteers went into action during the final weeks of this year's election campaign, according to party officers, and the volunteer effort is thought to have been a key factor in the party's gains in the election. Six of the eight Democratic candidates running for election in Lincoln County jurisdictions won their contests.

Lincoln County Democratic Party chair Valarie Johnson said volunteers served as drivers, canvassers, phone bankers and office staffers and, during the final weeks, filled the party's county campaign headquarters on Main Street in Damariscotta each day and into the evening.  

"I think their efforts, and of course the months of campaigning by our candidates, go far to explain our victories this year," Johnson said.

A standing-room-only crowd of about 100 Democratic volunteers and party supporters squeezed into the campaign headquarters November 13 to hear a wrap-up on the campaign, and to listen to comments on the statewide election from Portland Press Herald columnist Bill Nemitz.

Nemitz also underlined the importance of the volunteer effort, not only in Lincoln County, but throughout the state, where Democrats won majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives, after losing their majority status in 2010.

Nemitz said,  "I always see this as a pendulum. Politics is a pendulum. What happened in 2010, of course, we here in Maine and around the country swung very far to the right. I think the laws of political physics dictate that when that happens we will see a correction, although I don't think many people expected a correction this dramatic, and so soon.”

Nemitz warned Maine Democrats that they now need to begin thinking about 2014 and the elections for governor and for Susan Collins' U.S. Senate seat.  

“Your party has to put up two top-of-the-ticket candidates, and, as much as you're basking deservedly in the glow of what happened on Election Day, that 2014 election is going to be on you before you know it," he said.

Nemitz said newspapers need to cover government better than they have been doing.  He agreed with a questioner who spoke of the importance of community newspapers in energizing voters. He added, “I'm a big fan of the Lincoln County News. I read it (online) all the time. It is performing exactly that role.” But he said newspapers face a challenge in covering and evaluating the negative political advertising, financed by outside organizations, that have become common in the wake of the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision.

“We're suffering from the same condition that every other state is right now in the wake of Citizens United – it is a gusher (of money) … As long as there is this much money flowing through the system, it's going to be very difficult to keep up with it.”