About

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine Engineer: Amy Browne -How is the presidential primary going to work, -How will delegates to national conventions be apportioned and selected, -What role will municipal caucuses continue to play, -What will be the differences among the parties. Guests: Kenneth Palmer, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Maine Lisa Roberts, Executive Director of the Maine Democratic Party Richard Rosen,, former Republican State Legislator and former Commissioner of the Maine State Department of Administrative and Financial Services To learn more about this topic: “The Primary Versus the Caucus,” PBS Newshour, 2003 “Primaries v caucuses: a handy primer,” Harry J Enten in The Guardian, 2012. League of Women Voters of Maine, “Study Guide on Primary Elections,” 2018. “Maine switched to a presidential primary in 2020. Here’s why parties are still caucusing,” Bangor Daily News, February 9, 2020. “The U.S. Presidential Nominating Process,” The Council on Foreign Relations, January, 2020. What to Know About the Iowa Caucuses, Pew Research Center, January, 2020 Primary Politics: Everything You Need to Know about How America Nominates Its Presidential Candidates 4th Edition, Elaine C. Kamarck, Brookings Institution Press, November, 2018 The all-volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Ann Luther, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn FMI re League of Women Voters of Maine: www.lwvme.org About the host: Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.