Steve Mistler
Chief Political Correspondent and State House Bureau ChiefJournalist Steve Mistler is Maine Public’s chief politics and government correspondent. He is based at the State House.
Steve has been a journalist for nearly two decades, specializing in the coverage of politics and state government. His work has been recognized by the Maine Press Association, Gerald Loeb and regional Murrow awards for investigative projects and accountability journalism. He was named the MPA’s Journalist of the Year in 2011 for his coverage of municipal and state government. He later received a Public Service in Radio from the Society of Professional Journalists and a writing award from the Public Radio News Directors for his retrospective of former Gov. Paul LePage.
He joined Maine Public in 2016 after a career in newspaper reporting. He and his family live in Maine.
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In the posts he criticized police and wrote that white rural Americans “actually are” racist and stupid. Platner said the posts were a result of loneliness and disillusionment after he left the military, but don't represent who he is today. -
Proponents of Question 2 argue that the existing law — often referred to as Maine’s yellow flag law — is a failed experiment that was not used to stop a gunman in Lewiston from killing 18 people and injuring and traumatizing countless others in 2023 despite warnings about his deteriorating mental health. -
Mills was reportedly recruited by Democratic Senate leaders after her high-profile confrontation with President Donald Trump in February, in which she told the president she'd "see you in court." -
Dunlap's campaign launch is trying to tap Democrats' frustration with Golden's approach to President Donald Trump. -
The shut down affects 12,000 federal workers in the state, but not all will be furloughed. -
The citizens initiative appears as Question 2 on the November ballot and is a direct outgrowth of the governor's opposition to a red flag law and the Democratic-controlled legislature's unwillingness to advance one in the wake of the worst mass shooting in Maine history. -
The $100,000 fine against a major fundraising platform for Democratic candidates is among the largest assessed by the Maine Ethics Commission, but it could have been much larger. -
Graham Platner is one of eight declared Democrats seeking to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, but his campaign has drawn outsize interest for a political newcomer. He's attacking Collins and leaders in the national Democratic Party, who he describes as proxies for a political system abandoning the working class and enriching corporations and wealthy interests. -
U.S. Rep. Jared Golden was the only Democrat in the House to join Republicans in passing a temporary funding bill to avert a government shutdown on Oct. 1. Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins supported the proposal in the Senate, but it failed to obtain the 60 votes needed to pass. -
The group was formed as a response to upheaval at the U.S. CDC where Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is carrying out his decades-long campaign to limit vaccines. It hopes to share resources to ensure vaccine access while planning responses to public health emergencies.
