5 Debates That Split Mainers North and South of Augusta

Ask Mainers where Down East starts, and you won’t get one answer.

Some debates split the state north and south of Augusta, and some don’t follow the map at all.

Here are the debates that split Mainers north and south of Augusta, and where they get more complicated.

1. Sunday Hunting

Maine law bars hunting wild animals or wild birds on Sunday, and a violation is a Class E crime.

The ban goes back to 1883, so if you hunt, Sunday is a day off.

A couple of proposals to lift it have drawn a line across the map.

A 2011 bill would have allowed Sunday deer hunting across the northern part of the state, with a $25 permit.

A 2022 proposal drew its line from Route 2 near Bethel, through Bangor, to Route 9 at the Canadian border.

If you hunted north of it, Sundays would have opened up, while landowners to the south could have hunted their land or given others written permission.

A December 2025 column counted at least 39 attempts over 45 years to lift the ban or loosen it.

In a 2022 survey for the state’s wildlife department, about a third of Maine residents (34%) supported Sunday hunting, while 54% opposed it.

The 2025 column described the divide this way, with urban and southern residents leaning against Sunday hunting and rural and northern residents leaning toward it.

2. Bear Baiting

Maine voters rejected bear-hunting ban questions in 2004 and 2014.

The 2004 vote ended 53% to 47% against the ban.

Voters in nine mostly rural counties opposed the 2004 measure, while more southern and coastal parts of the state were divided.

Portland voters gave the 2004 ban strong support.

That points to a rural-versus-Portland divide more than a clean north-south one.

On the 2014 ballot, you would have been asked whether to ban bait, dogs and traps in bear hunting, with exceptions for property, public safety and research.

Portland voters backed the 2014 ban by roughly 9,000 votes, by election-night reporting, but the ban still lost.

3. Central Maine Power Corridor

In November 2021, you would have found a ballot question on blocking the Central Maine Power corridor, and about 59% of voters said yes in early results.

Almost every county had a majority on the yes side, and Aroostook was the lone exception.

Just over half of Aroostook voters were on the no side, the narrowest majority of any county.

In the unofficial results, Franklin County’s yes vote was nearly 70% and Somerset County’s was nearly 64%, in areas the corridor cut through.

With every other county voting yes, that looks more like Aroostook against the rest of the state than a north-south split.

4. Down East

Mainers can’t agree on how far west Down East reaches, the Bangor Daily News reported in 2023.

In an informal online survey of a few dozen Mainers that year, the most popular answer was Ellsworth or a nearby landmark.

Some said Penobscot Bay marks the edge, and others insisted Bucksport isn’t Down East.

That’s a dispute over where the region begins, not a split between northern and southern residents.

As of 2023, the state tourism office placed all of Hancock and Washington counties in its Down East and Acadia region.

5. Midcoast

The midcoast has no clear edges either, according to a 2024 Bangor Daily News piece.

It’s indisputable that all of Knox and Lincoln counties belong to it.

The arguing starts at the southern end, where one common line is the New Meadows River between the Phippsburg and Harpswell peninsulas.

Some say Wiscasset or Boothbay mark the southern tip.

The northern end extends at least to the Belfast area.

The state tourism office’s midcoast guide included both Winterport and Brunswick.

Frommer’s guidebook starts the region in Freeport, which the piece called a bit of a stretch.

Much of the midcoast sits in the southern half of the state.

Debates That Reached Augusta

Other Maine debates have reached lawmakers too, though the sources here don't show a north-south or rural-urban divide.

A 2021 bill would have made the lobster roll Maine's state sandwich.

Senate Majority Leader Eloise Vitelli, D-Arrowsic, proposed it at a constituent's request.

A 2017 Boston.com story traced the lobster roll's modern form back to Connecticut.

The Legislative Council turned down the bill in October 2021.

A 2011 law made the whoopie pie Maine's official state treat.

The original bill would have named it the official state dessert, but lawmakers amended it to name blueberry pie made with wild Maine blueberries instead.

The final law named the whoopie pie the state treat and kept blueberry pie as the state dessert.

Gov. Paul LePage let it become law without his signature.

Maine and Pennsylvania each claimed credit for the whoopie pie as the bill surfaced, the Associated Press reported.

Atlantic time has reached the Legislature in Augusta at least twice, in 2017 and 2019.

In 2017, the House voted 85-59 to adopt an amendment that would have put Maine on Atlantic Standard Time year-round.

The switch depended on Massachusetts and New Hampshire changing their time zones too.