Rep. Barbara Merrill is mad at Democrats.

That’s not news.

She left the party earlier this year and launched an independent bid for the Blaine House, trying to take Democratic Gov. John Baldacci’s job from him

Right now, she’s angry because the Maine Democratic Party has attacked Republican Sen. Dave Hastings in District 13 with a direct-mail piece.

The party sent out a mailer about two weeks ago that takes Hastings to task for four votes: a bill to slow the clean up of the Androscoggin River, the state budget in 2005, L.D. 1 and the bill that raised the minimum starting salary for teachers.

Merrill is taking Hastings’ part on one of the issues in particular. The Democratic Party slams Hastings for his vote on L.D. 1450. The problem, as Merrill sees it: Most Democrats also voted for the bill and Baldacci signed it into law.

The bill, which has largely been made moot by tougher actions by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, gave industrial polluters on the Androscoggin longer to clean up their acts.

With the exceptions of a few lawmakers – including Merrill – only the Democratic delegation from Lewiston and Auburn opposed the bill. Even though she disagreed with Hastings vote, Merrill said the mailer is hypocritical.

“They’re attacking Hastings for voting for a bill that never would have passed without Democrats and Gov. Baldacci,” Merrill said. “(The Democratic Party) wants to have it both ways.”

For his part, Hastings is plenty mad, too. He’s in a tough re-election fight against Democrat Marjorie Medd and independent Nelson Foley. Outside groups on both sides have entered the fight.

“It’s absolutely fair to criticize me for the votes I’ve made,” Hastings said, adding however that the criticism should have some resemblance to the truth of the votes.

Ben Dudley, the chairman of the state Democrat Party, takes a different view. The party’s job, he said, is to highlight differences between the two candidates and support its nominee.

“In this race, there’s a clear difference,” Dudley said.

One will celebrate

The four contenders for the Blaine House have made their plans for Election Night.

Gov. John Baldacci, the Democrat, will await results at his family’s restaurant in Bangor.

Republican Chandler Woodcock will be at the Hilton Garden Inn in Auburn, the same place his supporters gathered to collect the results in the primary.

Green Independent Pat LaMarche will be at the Harraseeket Inn in Freeport.

And independent Barbara Merrill will be at the Whale’s Tooth Inn in Lincolnville, which is on Route 1 north of Camden.

Crime story

Gov. John Baldacci received the endorsement of the Maine Association of Police. The announcement was made Tuesday morning in South Portland.

Coincidentally, at almost the same time, Republicans, including Woodcock, were in Portland talking about crime and punishment.

Assistant House Republican Leader Josh Tardy rallied with other members of his party to talk about “Jessica’s Law” with Florida state Rep. Charles Dean.

Dean played an important role in passing mandatory sentences for child sex offenders in Florida.

The GOP said it was defending itself against late attacks against Democrats that accused them of being “soft” on sexual predators. They did so by saying Democrats were “playing politics with our children’s safety in a last-minute election ploy.”

The GOP took issue with a mailer sent out by the Democratic Party critical of votes against L.D. 1717, an amended version of Jessica’s Law that did not include the mandatory minimums but did increase the penalties for sexual predators.

As might be expected, Democrats said Jessica’s Law has also been an issue in some Republican mail targeting Democrats, with the same type of wimp-on-crime story line.

One Democratic operative put it this way: “I don’t think there’s a whole lot of difference between Republicans and Democrats on this. None of us want to be soft on sexual predators. But the way we go about it might not be the same way they would go about it.”

Don’t take money and run

Democrat Larry Sirois is running against Republican Joan Bryant-Deschenes in House District 96.

Over the weekend, Sirois, who’s running as a Maine Clean Election candidate, qualified for matching money because the state Republican Party reported spending more than $1,000 in his district.

Sirois said he’s turning the money down.

“I’ve been campaigning on how frugal I am and how I don’t want to waste the state’s money,” Sirois said. “I feel if I spend that money, I’m wasting it.”

Sirois said he started campaigning in April, putting in between 40 and 50 hours a week.

Despite advice to use the money for another mass mailing in the district, Sirois said he’s comfortable with the race he’s run.

“I’m going to turn it back in.”