Retiring Democratic Rep. Jared Golden is endorsing Republican Rep. Mike Lawler for reelection.

Golden and Lawler worked together on bipartisan legislation, including a bill to protect Maine's lobster industry.

Golden praises Lawler for his willingness to work across the aisle to solve problems rather than score political points.

I spent eight years in Congress, and I won't pretend they were easy ones. When I announced last fall that I would not seek reelection, I wrote about the incivility and plain nastiness that are now common in our politics, and about a Congress that too often rewards ego and division over patience and determination. I stand by all of it. But there is another side to the story, and before I leave office I want to tell it.

This is how I've worked well with Rep. Mike Lawler

It starts with lobster. For decades, federal regulators have piled rules onto Maine's lobstermen in the name of protecting the North Atlantic right whale. Our fishermen did their part and then some. They replaced 27,000 miles of floating groundline with sinking line. They cut the number of ropes in the water and rigged their gear with breakaway links built to give way rather than entangle a whale. Nobody has a bigger stake in a healthy fishery than the families whose livelihoods depend on it.

Then in 2021, the government issued a new round of restrictions built on worst-case assumptions instead of real data. A federal appeals court unanimously vacated those restrictions. Congress stepped in the next year with a........

© Daily Messenger (MPNnow)