AUGUSTA, Maine — Historically, the political factions at the State House have been divided into Democrats and Republicans, with a few independents here and there. But when lawmakers come back to Augusta next week, the landscape will be populated with four distinct caucuses in the House and Senate.
All four groups of lawmakers agree that the top priority of the session should be a response to state's drug crisis. They hope to pass an initial bill funding ten more drug agents, a drug detox unit in the Bangor area and some additional outpatient drug treatment.
But beyond that, the caucuses are stressing different priorities.
Republican Senate President Mike Thibodeau of Winterport says welfare reform is a goal of the Senate Republicans.
"We think that it was a missed opportunity last winter," he says. "We think that people back home expect us to take that issue up."
Thibodeau believes that a bipartisan deal can be reached on addressing the drug crisis and on welfare reform by moving more welfare recipients off of assistance and into workplace.
Jobs are also a goal for Democrats in the Senate, says Minority Leader Justin Alfond of Portland.
"There are multiple bills in the second session that look at Maine's competitive advantages around local agriculture, looking at our working waterfront and looking at creating good-paying jobs today and tomorrow," he says.
Economic development is also on the agenda of House Democrats, says Majority Leader Jeff McCabe of Skowhegan. But he says much of the debate over what he expects to be taken up this session, including gambling legislation, will not necessarily be along party lines.
"There will be some major decisions made on gaming this session," he says. "Typically for gaming, those aren't partisan issues as much as they are often regional issues or, you know, where you come down on the issue of gaming in general."
Republican Ken Fredette of Newport, the House minority leader, says while party politics may not play a role in some issues, he says his caucus will maintain a very conservative philosophy and will push for lower taxes and resist increased spending.
"No. 1 on tax cuts and No. 2 on the amount of spending in the budget," he says. "My concern is there will be more requests for spending and that is going to be a real problem."
In fact, Fredette says there are real differences between House Republicans and Senate Republicans on some key issues. He points to the effort to expand Medicaid by Republican Sens. Tom Saviello of Wilton and Roger Katz of Augusta.
"From what I have read in the paper I think that Sen. Saviello and Sen. Katz are not on the right page," he says. "I don't support their proposal. I don't think it's wrong to have a disagreement about that."
Senate President Mike Thibodeau acknowledges that there are differences between the GOP caucuses, but stresses that his members are conservative, but also practical. He says in a divided government, no one gets everything they want.
"You got 186 personalities with 186 different ideas," he says. "I don't know if I understand the dynamics of this place most days, so we will try and figure it out."
And it's not just the Republicans that have differences. Alfond says there were disagreements when his party held control of both the Senate and the House, and there are still conflicting views around some issues.
"There are differences and those are real sometimes," he says. "The family fights are something that happens regardless of the level of government and I think they are healthy if they are done civilly."
House Democratic Leader Jeff McCabe says when party members disagree, it's often around a regional issue and not a split over fundamental philosophy.
"We don't always agree with our with our fellow Democrats in the Senate," he says. "Often leadership doesn't always agree with each other from time to time."
Whether the divisions in either party become a barrier to solving the state's problems is a question that won't be answered until the session is underway.
Lawmakers are back at the capitol next Wednesday.
