Bangor Daily News:

“We’re not short-timers; we are here for the long haul,” [No on 1 campaign manager Jesse] Connolly told the crowd, some of whom wiped away tears as he spoke. “Whether it’s just all night and into the morning, or next week or next month or next year, we will be here. We’ll be fighting, we’ll be working. We will regroup.”

I think that's exactly right.

The Yes on 1 campaign, led by the group Stand for Marriage Maine, built its lead by winning votes in rural Maine as well as in some larger towns such as the Roman Catholic and Franco-American stronghold of Lewiston*.

In contrast, the effort to defend Maine’s gay marriage law won strong support in places such as Portland, where 73 percent voted against Question 1, and majority support in Bangor.

I think the above is the easy story to write, and I'm already preparing for our access bloggers to start generating the commissions for their next campaign by calling rural Mainers stupid and homophobic (and old and white, which comes to the same thing, right?) Let me add a little nuance:

1. Non-urban ME** is in fact populated by a wide variety of people. There's a huge organic farming presence, a big artist and writers presence, as well as the more traditional extractive economies of logging, fishing, and tourism. There's also a big liberatarian presence, because of, er, growers. (Cheap land has a lot to do with these population movements.)

2. Rural ME is densely networked and neighborly, partly because of the horrible winter. (You may need to pitch in to heat somebody's house, even if you hate them.)

3. It's going to be important to learn how to organize these networks -- and not just cities -- because "when the trucks stop," that's how the world is going to work.

4. From the coverage, it sounds to me like these networks weren't being organized; certainly I didn't hear about it if they were (I'll ask around).

Despite the outcome, Mary Bonauto, a No on 1 executive board member and attorney with Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, said she was never more proud to live in Maine and raise a family with her long-term partner. She was especially proud of the attention the No on 1 campaign brought to the values shared by all families, regardless of sexual orientation.

“I look around at the 8,000 volunteers, and the vast majority are not gay people,” Bonauto said. “So that gives me hope that, regardless of the outcome, that this discussion has changed the state.”

Secretary of State Matt Dunlap, after witnessing activity at several polling stations and hearing from clerks around the state, said he believed at least 50 percent of voters may have cast ballots in the off-year election dominated by the gay marriage issue.

“What I have seen around the state has been steady to very busy turnout all day,” Dunlap said.

It's important not to frame turnout as Question 1 only. TABOR, the excise tax, and school deconsolidation were also huge, and on all three the right was thrashed. And in fact, I'd argue that turnout was not key, because turnout was bound to be huge, because the other questions on the ballot were also huge. It was non-urban organizing that was key, as I argue above.

The lead-up to Tuesday’s historic election began back in April when more than 3,000 people crammed into the Augusta Civic Center for a public hearing on the bill.

Lawmakers sat through more than 10 hours of impassioned, sometimes tearful testimony from longtime gay and lesbian partners as well as children of same-sex couples. The bill’s opponents were equally passionate, often citing religious objections to redefining marriage from the traditional one-man, one-woman union.

This was amazing, and fooled me into thinking that the task was easier than it turned out to be. (Press coverage was very favorable as well.)

Several weeks later, both chambers of the Legislature signed off on the bill, LD 1020, and sent it with some trepidation to Gov. John Baldacci, who had been on record previously as favoring civil unions and domestic partnerships over same-sex marriages.

This too, is important to remember: Our legislature is not known for its moral courage. And they passed the bill. That's because they thought it was a political winner -- which, ultimately, it will still be.*** Everything in ME happens slowly, again, because of the climate, but everything in ME happens surely, as well.

I'll repeat what I said here; in another year, question 1 would have won:

I'm guessing that the difficulty with question 1 is that (a) it's identified with [that lying sack of shit] Baldacci [who everybody really does hate, for school consolidation and turning the state into a dumping ground for out-of-state trash****], and there's no other way to send Baldacci a message this year, and (b) the No on 1 forces ran a smart campaign where they claimed the bill would force gay marriage to be taught in the schools, when a schools question was also on the ballot.

Of course, as resident of Zone 5b, I may identified with the state too much. Neverthess, that's my reading!

Dirigo Blue has more.

NOTE * It would be interesting to know how the Somali population of Lewison voted. I'm guessing against gay marriage, but just to say that the Catholic story is not the only religious story in the state.

NOTE ** I'm saying non-urban instead of "rural" because Bangor, the third largest "city" in the state, has only 31,000 people. (Lewiston, the second largest, has 36,000.) It's really important to understand that Bangor is not like Boston, say -- even if both are on Route 95, and look like they have a central position on the map.

NOTE *** As soon as enough people figure out that gay marriage means a population influx, because of the cheap land, even if for no other reason, and that there's money in it that doesn't depend on the goddamned mills or rich fucks from away.

NOTE **** Literal trash, I hasten to add. Mountains of it.