Forums:
Been a while since I checked in here, largely because I now live a bit further south in New England and frankly, the cast of characters here at AMG, at least in the few checks I've made of it in the past year or two, seems to have diminished to a tiny handful of regulars.
Anyway: the Second District race looks like a shoo-in for the first real test of ranked choice voting (RCV). Hoar will be first to go, but with 2% of the total vote that's not going to be enough to push either Poliquin or Golden over the top, so Bond will go too.
I could be wrong on this, but a casual search through Maine media would suggest that Hoar would be likely to attract a largely progressive voter base, and that Bond's following would tend somewhat more centrist or libertarian.
For those of you who have followed this race more diligently than I, I'd appreciate your read on how it's likely to shake out (and yes, I know RCV is really just a clever gambit to elect more Democrats and progressives).