If you’ve ever wanted a look inside the Statehouse that’s not from a purely partisan point of view — or written by a journalist — Penobscot Nation Rep. Donna Loring dishes it up in a new book.

House Minority Leader Josh Tardy, R-Newport, said this week that those who oppose efforts to require people to prove they are residents before they can get a driver’s license are “wildly outside the mainstream.”

The Legislature’s Transportation Committee is scheduled to vote Friday on Gov. John Baldacci’s Real ID bill that he submitted to comply with federal regulations. A separate bill addressing the issue of requiring people to be Maine residents before they can get a license is making its way through the legislative process.

The Maine Civil Liberties Union and others have opposed the governor’s Real ID bill.

“The people in these civil rights groups seem to think it’s fine to hand out Maine licenses to people from anywhere on the planet, even if they don’t live in Maine,” Tardy said in a statement. “It’s frankly unbelievable to me that they think we should issue this crucial ID document to people who are here illegally.”

Tardy, an attorney, is serving his sixth year in the House.

Stateline.org columnist Louis Jacobson pontificates today on the state legislative outlook for those of us with elections coming up this fall.

Not surprisingly, he puts the Maine Senate in the “toss-up” category given the current 18-17 Democratic majority. He rates the Maine House in the “safely Democratic” column — also not surprising given the 90-59 Democratic majority, with two independents.

When it comes to the Maine Senate, all 35 races will be contested in November, based on this week’s filings.

Some of the interesting match-ups:

Senate 15: Sen. Lois Snowe-Mello, R-Poland vs. Rep. Deborah Simpson, D-Auburn. Snowe-Mello has served four years in the Senate and eight years in the House. Simpson is completing her eighth year in the House.

Senate 18: Sen. Walter Gooley, R-Farmington, vs. Ann Woloson, a Belgrade Democrat. Gooley served eight years in the House and two in the Senate, and is being challenged by former Senate Democratic staffer Woloson, a health care policy wonk.

Senate 19: Sen. Paula Benoit, R-Phippsburg vs. Seth Goodall, a Richmond Democrat. Benoit is completing her second year in office, which included national notoriety for passing a bill to open up adoption records. Goodall, who formerly served as attorney to the Senate President, is a Richmond Selectman.

Senate 20: In this open seat, Rep. Peter Rines, D-Wiscasset, will square off against former Rep. David Trahan, R-Waldoboro. Both have considerable House experience.

Senate 32: Sen. Joe Perry, D-Bangor vs. former one-term Sen. Tom Sawyer, R-Bangor. Perry served eight years in the House and four in the Senate. The last time these two squared-off, in 2004, Perry beat Sawyer by 280 votes out of nearly 17,000 votes cast.

Nationwide, Democrats hold a majority of chambers. Read Jacobson's prediction for the rest of the country by clicking here.

For 20 legislators, the new session that began this week marks their fourth consecutive term, which means they cannot run again — at least not for the same seat.

But don’t worry.

Sen. John Martin, D-Eagle Lake, isn’t hanging it up. He said he plans a House run later this year. Martin, first elected in 1965, has missed only one term since then. He was House Speaker for 18 years, and switched to the Senate in 2001.

For Senate Minority Leader Carol Weston, R-Montville, a Christmas without a lot of presents stands out. It was 1970.

“It was the first Christmas my husband and I were married,” she said. “We had just moved from Aroostook County to Waldo County.

"We had no money. We decided we could spend $5 for each of us for Christmas. That’s what went under our tree, which had only lights. We were living in a little apartment in Brooks. It was just exciting to see how we spent that $5.”

If you are one of the “few hundred” people on House Speaker Glenn Cummings’ holiday card list, look at it closely.

He painted the scene himself.

The card depicts a man and woman embracing at the end of a long farmhouse driveway, what Cummings described as “a welcome home scene at Christmas time.”

Senate President Beth Edmonds, D-Freeport, said she’s tired of the naysayers.

Throughout the fall, she’s met with different Rotary groups and others to talk about what’s good about Maine, and she brings her speech to the Augusta Rotary early Thursday morning.

“I’ve been trying to change the conversation statewide,” she said. “What gets focused on are all the bad things that are going on. In terms of the economy, that’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, D-North Haven, is heading to Colorado Thursday to participate in a fellowship program as one of 24 “rising stars of American politics,” as identified by the Aspen Institute.

Pingree, 31, will join 11 other Democrats and 12 Republicans for the three-day workshop. She got an armload of reading in advance, which includes the Federalist Papers, Bill of Rights, U.S. Constitution and Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail.

“They sent me a packet of reading that reminds me of high school advanced placement history class,” she said.

More people now disapprove of the job Gov. John Baldacci is doing (47 percent), than approve (44 percent), according to the Associated Press, which reported on the fall Critical Insights poll.

This is a downward trend from April, when the polling firm found 48 percent approved of the Democratic governor’s job performance and 42 percent disapproved.

Senate Majority Leader Libby Mitchell, D-Vassalboro, told fellow Democrats this week it’s time they did a better job communicating with voters.

“It’s awfully important we start getting out the message of why we believe what we do,” she told a gathering of Augusta Democrats.

A poll that asks likely voters who they would choose in the 2008 Senate
race between Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and Democrat U.S. Rep. Tom Allen gives Collins a 56 percent to 33 percent advantage, according to the liberal Web site Daily Kos.

The Kos hired what they described as an independent polling firm to take
the temperature of the race. The pollsters called 600 likely voters at random, there’s a 4 percent margin of error — and 11 percent were
undecided.

U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, a Democrat from Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, endorsed John Edwards for president on Friday.

“John Edwards has the courage to tackle problems that other politicians simply ignore – like ending poverty in America and making trade work for working Americans,” Michaud said in a statement from the Edwards campaign. “He is the only candidate who has offered real plans to help struggling rural communities and to provide health care coverage for the 45 million uninsured Americans.”

The Christian Civic League of Maine held a straw poll at its recent banquet, choosing former Tennessee senator and actor Fred Thompson as its favorite presidential candidate.

The straw poll included all candidates — Democrats and Republicans — and 97 percent of those who voted (about 100 people) chose a Republican, said league Executive Director Mike Heath.

The advice may be 76 years old, but it rings true today.

“Political campaigns in these days are pretty strenuous and, unless an individual is blessed with equanimity, may be regarded as aggravating to say the least,” said former Republican Gov. William Tudor Gardiner in his second inaugural delivered in 1931.

“Tudor,” as he was called, apparently wanted to raise the level of discourse in politics, and went on at length about it to begin his speech. Here’s a few graphs to give you the flavor:

We ran a front-page story today, courtesy of the Press Herald, that details who’s raised what so far for the 2008 House and Senate races.

Beyond who’s got the most dough, it’s interesting to check out the reports to see who’s giving what to whom. On this round, spouses and other family members appear to be opening their pockets to help their candidates get off the ground.

Who will the Republicans run against U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud in the 2nd Congressional District in 2008?

There’s been a lot of talk about the 1st Congressional District race, with both sides fielding multiple candidates for the open seat.

We know there will be a major showdown when U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, a Democrat, takes on Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican, for the Senate seat.

But there’s been virtually no discussion about the 2nd District race, in which Democrat Michaud is seeking his third term.

Senate President Beth Edmonds of Freeport is backing fellow Democrat Michael Brennan of Portland for the 1st Congressional District seat.

She chose Brennan over four other Democrats who want their party’s nomination, including current Senate colleague Ethan Strimling.

Will the union that represents 10,000-plus state workers be active in the presidential primary season?

We'll have to wait and see.

The Maine State Employees Association is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, which announced this week that it won’t be endorsing any of the Democratic candidates in the race for the White House. The SEIU has 1.9 million members representing workers in health care, property services and public employee sectors.

Rather than hand out a coveted national endorsement, the national union is leaving it up to individual state unions to decide who they want to endorse.

Democrats are raising money for the four women seeking House seats this fall in hopes of getting their candidates elected and to increase the number of women in the House.

Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, D-North Haven, said she and Rep. Emily Cain, D-Orono, have maintained a women’s political action committee for a few years. This fall, they are raising extra money for the women running to fill four of the five vacant House seats, Pingree said.

The Maine Democratic Party added a spokeswoman from out of state to their roster, and she’s headed for U.S. Rep. Tom Allen’s Senate campaign in a few months.

Carol Andrews made a splash in Maine politics recently by defending the party’s use of a tracker who videotaped Republican Sen. Susan Collins at a parade. It’s not Andrews’ first controversy over a camera.

Presidential candidates are looking for a leg up in every state, asking for endorsements from governors and other prominent elected officials.

For his part, Gov. John Baldacci, a Democrat, said he hasn’t decided who he’ll back.

It’s unusual to have five House seats open in an off year.

But is it significant?

Regardless of the outcome, the balance of power will remain with the Democrats, at least until November 2008. Yet both parties say they are going full bore for these five seats as a way to set the table for the major presidential election.

Steve Abbott, described “as the man behind the curtain” for U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, said Friday he hasn’t decided whether he will enter the race for the 1st Congressional District seat.

“When I say I’m undecided, I truly am,” he said in a phone interview. “I’m not trying to be coy. It’s a lot to think about.”

The “Senator from Handsometown” aka Sen. Ethan Strimling, joins a crowded field of Democrats who hope to represent their party in the race for the 1st District Congressional seat.

(Strimling, of Portland, got the “handsometown” moniker a couple of years ago when he appeared in a story on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”)

Anyway, during a stop in Augusta on his first day as an official candidate, Strimling hopped out of a giant white charter bus covered with hip campaign slogans:

“Ethan is the man.”

“Ethan Strimling: Always Fighting 4 Maine People!”

After a brief introduction by Dale McCormick — Strimling served as her campaign manager when she ran for Congress and lost — Strimling gave an off-the-cuff synopsis of the campaign speech he gave in Portland during his official announcement.

About 15 people gathered in KeyBank Plaza shortly before he arrived, and about 30 got off the bus with him, holding "Ethan Strimling for Congress" signs.

“Maybe I’ll just keep exploring I’m having so much fun,” he said, taking a jab at critics who complained it took him too long to officially enter the race.

The 39-year-old chief executive of Portland West, which works with at-risk youth, must convince Democrats he’s better than Chellie Pingree, Michael Brennan, Adam Cote and Mark Lawrence.

They have until the June primary to duke it out.

Sen. Peter Mills, R-Cornville, describes the group of Dems “as a very far left field,” and said it would be a mistake to assume Strimling is the most liberal of them all. He’s hoping Steve Abbott, chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, joins the race for the Republicans.

As of right now, the Republican field includes Charlie Summers of Scarborough and Dean Scontras of Eliot.

“We have to have a moderate candidate in that district,” Mills said.

Finally, someone is launching a campaign on one of the five questions that will be on the Nov. 6 ballot.

Passamaquoddy tribal leaders and Sen. Kevin Raye, R-Perry, announced Wednesday that the Yes on Question 1 campaign is beginning. Question 1 asks voters to give the tribe the ability to open a racino — a race track with slots — on land in Calais.

It’s a bit early to be speculating about the next gubernatorial election, which won’t be held until November 2010.

But one of the people rumored to be considering a run — Cianbro President Peter Vigue — happened to be in the Statehouse Tuesday.

So I asked him about it.

Sen. Jonathan Courtney — a Springvale Republican — is urging fellow Republicans to take up health care as a major issue in the 2008 elections.

Courtney, who announced he is not running for the 1st Congressional District seat, is a three term state lawmaker who has worked on tax reform and business issues.

At the end of his “I’m not running ” statement, Courtney challenges the Republicans who do run to get moving on health care.

Democrats running for the 1st Congressional District seat got a reminder Thursday that you never know what people in the audience are going to ask.

Just after they gave their opening remarks to Kennebec County Democrats, but before they had really warmed up their voices, Ellis McKeen of West Gardiner threw this question at them:

“If you were in the voting booth today, who would you vote for for president?”

Rudy and Barack are coming to Maine.

Have you bought your tickets yet?

The two presidential hopefuls — Republican Rudolph W. Giuliani and Democrat Barack Obama — are both hosting fund-raisers in southern Maine in the coming days.

If your summer reading list is growing thin, or you’re having trouble falling asleep at night, you may want to check out the online summary of all the bills considered and laws passed this year.

Many of the new laws passed will take effect on Thursday cause it’s been 90 days since the Legislature adjourned.

Republicans and Democrats will meet this week to choose their nominees for the House District 83 seat left vacant by the death of Rep. Deane Jones, D-Mount Vernon.

Both parties have lost capable representatives from this seat in the last five months.

Ever wonder if your lawmaker is actually coming to Augusta?

All the roll call percentages of Maine House members are now posted online.

A quick scan of the five-page document shows that most reps show up to vote
more than 90 percent of the time. The roll call percentages aren’t
necessarily an indication of whether a lawmaker is in the building; they
are simply a measure of how many times a representative voted on roll
calls.