When Les Gibson viciously insulted survivors of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida–calling one a “lesbian skinhead” and the other a “bald-faced liar”–he wasn’t just dooming his own political ambitions, but may have harmed those of many of his fellow Republicans.
In the wake of his remarks, the Lewiston Democratic Party started a fundraising page at the website ActBlue dedicated to defeating Gibson in the race for State House District 57. When the state Democratic Party announced Thursday that political neophyte Eryn Gilchrist of Greene had entered the race as his challenger, donations to the site went through the roof, jumping from $2,000 to nearly $140,000 in 24 hours (it’s now above $170,000 and counting).
That kind of money can make a huge difference in local election. Rep. Stephen Wood, the Republican incumbent in District 57, spent $7,333.72 on his last election, running as a Clean Elections candidate. (While his Democratic opponent spent just $1,058.79.) The money raised to the city committee so far could fund an independent expenditure campaign of that size 23 times over.
After a more “civil” Republican challenger emerged, Gibson announced Friday he was no longer running, but the Lewiston Democratic Party promised donors it would “use every dollar to beat Gibson and his hateful allies,” which the local chair says go all the way up the ladder in the Maine Republican Party.
“We’re going to be turning next to the people who will have enabled him and the people who support him and the people who share his values,” said Kiernan Marjerus-Collins, chair of the Lewiston Democratic party, noting that Lewiston Mayor Shane Bouchard is a member of the Les Gibson for Maine House District 57 Facebook page.
“We will make sure they can’t get elected in Lewiston, elected in Androscoggin County, or in the state of Maine,” he added.
Marjerus-Collins pointed out that even before seeking local office, Gibson was considered “a member in good standing in the Republican establishment,” and was serving as treasurer of the Androscoggin Republican Party–a branch of the state GOP notorious for making similarly incendiary comments on its Twitter account. Notably, @AndroGOP was deactivated last week.
“He is a spokesman for the Maine Republican Party,” Marjerus-Collins continued, “who uses his platform to bully and attack people, such as students, new Mainers, other folks who are especially vulnerable.”
Marjerus-Collins said his group was blindsided by the flood of donations, which he noted had an average of just $23, indicating that this “truly is a grassroots outpouring of opposition to Les Gibson and the comments that he made.”
Because Gilchrist has chosen to run as a Clean Elections candidate–which Marjerus-Collins said she “deserves incredible credit” for doing–the party cannot coordinate with her campaign. But that won’t stop the Lewiston Democrats from using the funds “to increase Democratic turnout across Androscoggin County.”
“There’s no question that people are absolutely outraged by what he said and anybody who gave money, anybody who repeated or read the story, shared the story…all those people are potential voters. And if most of them don’t live in Greene in Sabbatus,” he continued, “they can vote against Republicans in their area and I think they will.”
Gibson at an event with Gov. Paul LePage and Rep. Bruce Poliquin, via campaign website.
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