Despite a beautiful August day yesterday, a public hearing at the State House drew a strong turnout of Mainers hoping to influence the bipartisan congressional redistricting committee as it considers competing plans for redrawing Maine’s political map.

The plans could hardly be more different. The Democratic map moves only a single town (or, in their compromise proposal, a handful of towns), meeting the requirements of the process with minimal disruption of congressional districts that have remained largely the same since they were created in 1961.

Supporters of equal marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples have begun their campaign to gather the 57,277 valid signatures necessary to place the issue on the November, 2012 ballot.

Maine GOP Chairman Charlie Webster is working hard to sow doubt about Maine's election system and convince Mainers that his political opponents have engaged in coordinated election fraud. His campaign is in large part an attempt to derail a People's Veto effort launched to protect Election Day voter registration in Maine (a cause I support both personally and professionally).

It’s all over but the cutting.

The deal reached on the debt ceiling in Washington is a compromise that no one seems happy with and one that split the votes of Maine’s congressional delegation, and that’s all before many of the final details of the plan have become clear.