GOP Senate Minority Leader Dana Dow Admits Call to Reconvene Legislature to Repeal State of Emergency Was Just A Political Stunt: “It Was A Bit of A Shot Across the Bow”

In an interview with the Portland Phoenix, Maine Senate Minority Leader Dana Dow admitted that Senate Republicans’ call to reconvene the State Legislature to end the coronavirus state of emergency was all just a political stunt: “It was a bit of a shot across the bow,” Dow told the Phoenix. “Maybe through the bow.”

Dow and Senate Republicans' plan to end the coronavirus state of emergency would have not only jeopardized federal COVID-19 funding but limited Maine’s power to procure testing supplies and personal protective gear desperately needed by essential frontline workers. Despite the devastating consequences for Maine people if the Legislature had given in to Republican demands for reconvening and repealing the emergency powers necessary to respond to the ongoing public health crisis and save lives, Dow told Senate President Troy Jackson that Senate Republicans didn’t have a plan to guide the state’s pandemic response if emergency powers were repealed.

In fact, the only plan Dow and Senate Republicans appeared to formulate beyond unnecessarily putting lives at risk was asking Maine people to learn to live with the deaths caused by COVID-19 like we “learned to live with HIV.”

“Senate Republican Leader Dana Dow finally admitted what we knew all along about Senate Republicans’ calls to reconvene and repeal the coronavirus state of emergency: it was all just a political stunt,” said Seth Nelson, spokesperson for the Maine Democratic Party. “At a time when Maine people are at their most vulnerable in this rapidly changing public health crisis, elected representatives should be working together in the best interests of their constituents, not attempting to score cheap political points that, if successful, could make this crisis even worse.

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