Maine State Capitol
Photo: Pixabay
By Lee Burnett
Local legislators express mixed opinions about legislative scorecards, which political interest groups publish every year to exert their influence.
The latest scorecards from the 132nd Legislature show the voting records of local legislators generally aligned with the major interest groups associated with their respective parties.
Republican state Sen. Matthew Harrington and Republican state Reps. Ann Marie Fredericks and Lucas Lanigan got high marks from the right-leaning Maine Policy Institute and low marks from the left-leaning Maine People’s Alliance and Maine AFL-CIO. By contrast, Democratic state Rep. Anne-Marie Mastraccio got low marks from the Maine Policy Institute and high marks from the Maine People’s Alliance and Maine AFL-CIO.
Legislators interviewed for this story said they pay little attention to their scores and have mixed opinions about their value to voters.
Sen. Harrington, who represents Senate District 33 encompassing Sanford and several surrounding towns, said he thinks scorecards are only helpful if voters examine all scorecards to compare and contrast candidates. “But I don’t think people do that,” he said. He thinks scorecards may be more important for organizational fundraising and mobilizing their members than for voters.
“They’re all partisan organizations,” he said. “They cherry-pick the bills they want to use. Both sides do it.”
Rep. Mastraccio, who represents House District 142 encompassing downtown Sanford and the east side neighborhoods, said a scorecard provides voters a quick way to assess a legislator’s basic priorities.
“It’s helpful in weeding out people you’re not going to vote for,” she said.
She discounted interest groups’ influence on her, despite using scorecards “as a hammer” by signaling in advance which votes are being scored. “It doesn’t influence me, honestly. To me, they’re just another lobby group.”
Rep. Fredericks, who represents District 143 encompassing south Sanford, said she’s “not convinced scorecards are weighed heavily” by voters. “I think they’re more interested in familiarity with a candidate and access to a candidate,” she said. She finds scorecards are narrowly focused, while voters have “many topics” on their minds, chief among them the cost of daily living. She said she’s aware of her ratings but has never spent much time evaluating the criteria.
Lucas Lanigan, who represents House District 141 encompassing Springvale, said the major scorecards are “very partisan.” He finds the scorecards of smaller organizations more helpful. He said he is “very proud” of his rating by the Maine Recovery Advocacy Project because reducing substance use disorder shouldn’t be a partisan issue. He said scorecards can be helpful to voters in the middle of the political spectrum. “They can help give information,” he said.
Maine Policy Institute
Among their legislative priorities were: repealing net energy billing for solar power, supporting popular election of constitutional officers, enacting voter ID, eliminating ranked choice voting, opposing income tax increases, opposing tax increases on sales and lodging, opposing bonds for transportation and land conservation, expanding charter schools,
Harrington 100 %
Fredericks 96%
Lanigan 92%
Mastraccio 7%
The full scorecard:
https://mainepolicy.org/scorecard/#
Maine AFL-CIO
Among their legislative priorities were: adding a surcharge on incomes more than $1 million to permanently fund 55 percent of local K-12, supporting the extension of prevailing wage rates for clean energy jobs, supporting no-interest loans for state and federal works impacted by government shutdowns, supporting minimum wage laws for agricultural workers, and opposing “right-to-work” legislation.
Harrington 0 %
Fredericks 10 %
Lanigan 10 %
Mastraccio 100 %
The full scorecard:
https://scorecard.maineaflcio.org/uploads/docs/meaflcio-2025-scorecard.pdf
Maine People’s Alliance
Among their legislative priorities were: adding a surcharge on incomes more than $1 million to permanently fund 55 percent of K-12 education, adding a real estate transfer tax on homes selling for more than $1 million, making tax brackets more progressive, opposing a rollback of trans rights, limiting law enforcement cooperation with ICE, opposing rollbacks in Maine’s paid family and medical leave law.
Harrington 16.7 %
Fredericks 0 %
Lanigan 25%
Mastraccio 87.5 %
The full scorecard:
The League of Conservation Voters and the Sportsmans Alliance of Maine have yet to issue their scorecards for the most recent session of the Maine Legislature.
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