By: Jon Fetherston
What has happened to leadership in Maine?
Somewhere along the way, we stopped expecting our elected officials to solve problems and started rewarding them for producing viral moments. Politics has become performance art. Press conferences, profanity, outrage, and social media videos now dominate the conversation, while many of Maine’s most pressing problems continue to worsen.
Leadership has been replaced by likes, shares, and sound bites.
Look no further than Lewiston.
Maine’s second-largest city continues to struggle with violent crime, drug trafficking, homelessness, discarded needles, and an alarming rise in youth gun violence. Residents have watched neighborhoods change and families worry about their safety. Yet where has the sustained leadership been?
Gov. Janet Mills knows Lewiston as well as anyone. She built part of her career there as district attorney. If anyone understands the challenges facing the city, it should be her. Yet as these problems have mounted, many Mainers have been left wondering: where is the governor?
Instead, much of the state’s political leadership seems consumed by the issue that generates the loudest headlines.
We’ve watched Rep. Chellie Pingree post videos criticizing ICE. We saw Democrat for U.S Senate, Troy Jackson speak at an anti-ICE rally in Scarborough, where he used profanity while addressing the crowd. House Speaker Ryan Fecteau has repeatedly condemned federal immigration enforcement.
But what did those moments actually accomplish?
Did they improve public safety?
Did they produce reforms?
Did they deliver accountability?
Or did they simply fuel another news cycle before everyone moved on to the next controversy?
Leadership should be measured by results…not rhetoric.
Consider Sen. Susan Collins.
When Operation Catch of the Day threatened Maine’s commercial fishing industry, Collins picked up the phone and worked behind the scenes with federal officials to secure a pause. Following the fatal ICE shooting in Biddeford, she called for an independent investigation rather than rushing to judgment. She then pushed for ICE agents to wear body cameras during enforcement operations…a reform that was ultimately adopted.
No viral videos.
No shouting.
No political theater.
Just results.
That is what effective leadership looks like.
It isn’t glamorous. It rarely trends on social media. It happens through difficult conversations, persistent follow-up, and relationships built over years of earning trust. The best negotiations are almost always conducted privately, not in front of television cameras or smartphone lenses.
The strongest leaders don’t wake up wondering how many views they’ll receive that day. They wake up asking how they can solve a problem.
That difference matters.
As Maine prepares to elect its next U.S. senator, voters face a choice between two very different approaches to public service.
Troy Jackson has made opposition to ICE and the Trump administration central themes of his campaign. Susan Collins has pursued a different path. She has supported enforcing federal immigration law while also demanding accountability when government agencies fall short. She has demonstrated that supporting law enforcement and insisting on transparency are not contradictory principles.
That’s what governing requires.
Real leadership isn’t about choosing the loudest side of every debate. It’s about producing better outcomes.
Too often today, politicians seem more interested in creating content than creating solutions. Outrage has become a campaign strategy. Every microphone becomes an opportunity for another viral clip. Every controversy becomes another fundraising email.
But governing isn’t content creation.
Leadership is hard. It is often lonely. It requires patience, humility, and the willingness to work with people who disagree with you. It means accepting criticism without demanding recognition. It means putting results ahead of applause.
Maine needs more of that.
Whether voters agree with every decision Susan Collins has made over nearly three decades in the Senate is beside the point. No elected official should be above criticism.
But leadership should ultimately be judged by one simple standard:
Did you make life better for the people you represent?
Not with speeches.
Not with social media posts.
Not with outrage.
With results.
That’s the kind of leadership Maine deserves, and the kind of leadership America could use a lot more of.
