Donald Trump

The Department of Justice says the detailed data is needed to ensure Maine is accurately maintaining its voter rolls. But Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, says the DOJ is overstepping its bounds as part of a "fishing expedition."

The governor's comments came during a rare, three-stop tour with business leaders and local officials and amid pressure from some Democratic decisionmakers hoping to recruit her to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins next year.

But the Maine Principals' Association is asking a federal court to block the request for a trove of information, saying it is irrelevant to the central issue in the DOJ's lawsuit against the state.

The well-known progressive from Vermont also used the event to boost two Democratic candidates for statewide office in Maine: former Senate President Troy Jackson, who is running for governor, and U.S. Senate hopeful Graham Platner.

The Republican chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee made the statement after the Trump administration used a "pocket rescission" to attempt to withhold an additional $5 billion to foreign aid and peacekeeping programs.

Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, instead asked a DOJ official why the department wanted the information, how it would be used and to provide details about which, if any, laws Maine has violated as part of its efforts to maintain voter rolls.

The Trump administration terminated the agreement for hundreds of thousands of unionized VA workers, including doctors, nurses and support staff at veterans' hospitals.

The president's comment on social media came two weeks after the Maine Republican opposed his administration's bill to rescind $9 billion that had already been approved by Congress.

Secretary of State Shenna Bellows has joined her elections counterparts from multiple other states who say they don't plan to comply with DOJ requests for personal data on voters

The bill by Golden and a Pennsylvania Republican would reverse a March executive order by President Trump that sought to eliminate collective bargaining rights for roughly 1 million federal workers.