It was the biggest challenge to his governorship and his second-term prospects.

The Democratic controlled Legislature, with a great deal of help from their Republican enemies, having dropped the ball on tax reform for two sessions, gave the proposed Palesky tax cap added momentum last spring.

Many Republicans actively welcomed both the legislative failure and the Palesky initiative as ways to force Gov. Baldacci to break his campaign promise of no new broad base taxes. As the 2004 legislative session ended, most State House reporters and many in the political class of both parties were talking about Baldacci’s lost leadership and declining political power.

Faced with a gloating Maine Education Association and Maine Municipal Association, who were poised to garner a windfall of significant proportions, and disillusioned business leaders who had paid for two failed anti-1A campaigns, Gov. Baldacci could have thrown up his hands and let matters take their own course.

He did not.

Baldacci was under enormous pressure to have the tax cap vote in June when it would have passed easily. He was also under almost desperate demands to come up with a “competing measure,” which would simply have ensured the tax cap would hang over the next legislative session. Imagine the lunacy of expecting the Legislature to come up with anything of even remote value in a two day summer session.

He did neither.

With the Palesky tax cap leading with a 3-1 advantage, John Baldacci stepped up to the challenge and provided much needed strategic guidance, financial backing and tough demands on how to run a winning campaign against the tax cap.

He planted his standard on unpopular ground and sought to rally the necessary forces to defeat the ill-advised and draconian Palesky proposal. He said early and often that the Palesky plan was a “meat ax” approach and had to be defeated. Baldacci put his reputation on the line against a proposition, which at the time had a 60 percent popular appeal, simply because he thought it would be bad for Maine.

He showed political courage of the highest order.

In the campaign which followed, many made major contributions:

Larry Benoit, Baldacci’s former chief of staff, heeded the governor’s plea and came on board to run the day to day campaign. He did a magnificent job. Benoit, along with Kay Rand and Stephanie Clifford, kept the fractious coalition of the MMA, MEA, AFL/CIO and AARP in line and provided a ground game second to none. It was an outstanding performance.

Erik Potholm, hired by Benoit over the objections of some partisan Democrats, produced a series of dramatic and powerful 30-second commercials, which did not feature a single politician or interest group spokesperson but simply real Maine people whose lives would be negatively affected by the draconian cuts Palesky would have inspired. His first wave of commercials peeled away liberal Democratic votes and many independents.

Martha Freeman, head of the State Planning Office, Jonathan Rubin and Todd Gabe discovered “the kiddie casino” vector of this election cycle, namely the astronomical rises in sales (80 percent) and income (64 percent) taxes, which would have been required to fill in the gap caused by the cuts in the property taxes.

Their contribution proved to be invaluable.

Once the second wave of commercials featuring these numbers were shown, conservative urban-Franco Democrats and small town Republicans, the two strongest groups favoring Palesky in the summer, turned on the measure with a vengeance. The yes vote never recovered from these defections.

George Smith, perhaps Maine’s best known conservative and certainly its most important, broke ranks early with conservative Republicans and wrote a powerful newspaper column indicating why those who wanted tax relief should vote against the tax cap. He made it respectable for conservative Republicans to join the fight against the tax cap. They did so in significant numbers.

The Maine State Chamber of Commerce was led by Dana Connors, John Oliver and David Brennerman. Faced with strong internal divisions and a business community angry at the lack of legislative action, the Chamber came up with a future spending-cap alternative and got behind the Baldacci effort with significant financial and leadership support.

Mark Grey, executive director of the MEA, refused to buckle under to NEA and local Maine “wanna-be” kingmaker pressure, and stuck with the local talent that eventually won the referendum for him.

Dennis Bailey did his usual superb job of verbally spinning straw into campaign gold and nudged the Maine press corps toward the notion that the tax cap was not a guaranteed victory. And his pre-Halloween appearance on television as an aging rock star frightened even the most jaded of Yarmouth yuppies into realizing the end was near.

All of these contributions broke the back of the yes on one coalition and ensured Gov. Baldacci his biggest win yet.

He deserved it.

For the second year in a row, Gov. John Baldacci led a fight against an initially popular but potentially devastating referendum.

He has proven himself to be a true leader, unafraid to risk defeat for principle, unconcerned about newspaper popularity ratings and unwilling to be deterred by the odds against him.

He is the big winner this November.

Chris Potholm is professor of government at Bowdoin College, president of a national polling company and a writer, analyst and speaker on Maine’s political scene. He can be reached at The Potholm Group, 182 Hildreth Road, Harpswell, Maine 04079 or by e-mail at cpotholm@polar.bowdoin.edu. Eric Potholm, who is mentioned in the column, is his son.

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