Brewer speaks with several media outlets following Election Day
Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine, spoke with several news organizations following Election Day. On WVII (Channel 7), Brewer spoke about the shock people around the country are feeling after the presidential election. “Some are happy stunned and some are sad stunned, but people are stunned that we are here, right now looking at this,” he said. The Christian Science Monitor quoted Brewer in the article, “Gun-control initiatives pass in West Coast states. Why not in Maine?” Three of the four states considering ballot initiatives to tighten gun-control laws approved their measures as expected Tuesday, but Maine voters rejected a push for universal background checks, according to the article. “ I think there are two lessons that gun control advocates should take out of this,” Brewer said. They should be wary of coming across as “meddlesome big-city outsider” running a campaign in a state that is not their own, and they should carefully craft proposed policies to avoid unintended consequences, he said. “Maine also has a longstanding tradition of opposition to forces external to Maine trying to interfere in what is seen as Maine’s business, to the point where people who are not from Maine — and even people who live in Maine now, but were born elsewhere — are not considered true Mainers. They are ‘from Away,’” he added. The Portland Press Herald also quoted Brewer in a report on Question 3. “Maine has a long history of gun ownership, gun usage and a strong hunting tradition, and that matters,” he told the Press Herald. “Any time that seems to be under attack, it is easy to mobilize that sentiment.”