A ballot initiative in Portland Maine to increase the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour failed last Tuesday. What makes this defeat so instructive is that Portland IS the Democrat Mecca of Maine. Forty-seven percent are registered Democrat. Six percent of its voters are members of the Green Party. In the last election for governor 74% of ballots were marked for the Democrat challenger to Republican Paul LePage. Portland is blue.
But not blue enough to rubber stamp a minimum wage hike to $15.00 and hour.
Portland will get there eventually, job loss and business flight will follow as it must, but not this year.
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Steve is a long-time New Hampshire resident, award-winning blogger, and a member of the Board of Directors of The 603 Alliance. He is the owner of Grok Media LLC and the Managing Editor, Executive Editor, assistant editor, Editor, content curator, complaint department, Op-ed editor, gatekeeper (most likely to miss typos because he has no editor), and contributor at GraniteGrok.com. Steve is also a former board member of the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire, The Republican Volunteer Coalition, has worked for or with many state and local campaigns and grassroots groups, and is a past contributor to the Franklin Center for Public Policy.
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