Of Mice and Politicians

"Eeeek!"
I can't help but think that is a mild version of what Jackson Lab officials must be thinking at finding their biomedical research institution kicked around as a political football in Maine's gubernatorial campaign. (The photo is of one of the lab's research mice).
No one at the lab has said anything publicly about it, but there's simply no way they can be enthusiastic about the attention they've been getting lately in the campaign, thanks mainly to Republican candidate Les Otten. He was the first candidate to say that the lab's interest in expanding to Florida represents a failure by Maine's state government, but now others are chiming in.
Democrat Rosa Scarcelli (in this PPH op-ed) and Republican Paul LePage are echoing Otten's sentiments, saying that Maine needs to do more to try to get Jackson Lab to expand here instead. But Democrat John Richardson (who now has dropped out of the race for other reasons) and Republican Peter Mills have said that comparing Maine to Florida, in terms of the opportunities available to Jackson Lab in each state, is like comparing apples and oranges (according to this MPBN story).
Mills and Richardson have said Maine simply cannot match what Florida has to offer, in terms of state funding and potential research partners (the lab itself says the same thing in this press release). Republican candidate Matt Jacobson, in this blog post, also says that dangling $130 million to recruit 200 jobs would not be a good economic development strategy for Maine.
The issue of the lab's possible out-of-state expansion has become a hot one politically, and undoubtedly it is making lab officials uncomfortable. During a recent GOP debate in Bangor, Mills publicly rebuked Otten for characterizing the possible expansion as "a loss of 7,000 jobs" in Maine (that's the number of jobs projected to be created eventually in Florida by Jackson Lab and other possible partners). Mills called Otten's statement a "falsehood," and Otten replied by saying he was "appalled" by Mills' criticism (see the BDN story).
[As an aside: Mills' criticism of Otten's comments is not surprising. The Cornville Republican is friends with Jill Goldthwait, an independent who used to be Maine Senate president. Since leaving public office, Goldthwait has served as the lab's chief government relations officer - and she has endorsed Mills in the Republican primary.]
Jackson Lab certainly isn't used to seeing its name dragged into the mudpit of state politics. It long has received broad bipartisan support in Maine - from every governor in recent memory, from Republican Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, and from U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, a Democrat. Former Congressman Tom Allen, another Democrat, also took an interest in supporting the lab, even though it wasn’t in his district.
The lab's access to public funding, however, is another matter. If the lab's expansion becomes politicized, how much more money might it get from state bonds or federal allocations?
Scarcelli touches upon this very question in her op-ed piece (even though in the piece she says Maine's recent public investment in the lab has been "worthwhile"). Maine taxpayers, she writes, have given the lab more than $40 million over the past decade.
"But is it too much to expect that in return for this money, Maine should get first refusal on any new facility the company plans to create?" Scarcelli asks.
According to Jackson Lab’s web site, the lab’s operating revenue for the 2009 fiscal year includes more than $54 million in public support, which is nearly one-third of its operating budget. That public support includes both bonds approved directly by Maine voters and funding the lab has received from the federal National Institutes of Health.
What will happen with future public funding votes if Maine is viewed as getting the short end of the stick somehow in the Florida deal? How generous will Maine voters be with future bond issues if most of the lab's growth seems to be headed to Florida instead of Maine? How much can members of Maine’s congressional delegation advocate for continued federal funding for the lab if the lab is believed to be shipping jobs out of state? The perception being cast by the political debate could have adverse consequences on the lab's ability to raise money in Maine and with the help of Maine politicians in Washington.
In an April 26 press release, Jackson Lab CEO Rick Woychik seems to address this concern. Without making any reference to the gubernatorial campaign, he writes: "Job growth over the last decade has been accelerated by Maine's investments in our campus infrastructure, and we hope that our partnership with the state will continue."
Again, lab officials have not made any public reference to the gubernatorial campaign, so how they really feel about the lab becoming a campaign issue is anybody's guess. But whether the attention is fair or not, the lab certainly has ample reason to hope that the political scrutiny in Maine of its plans in Florida goes away as quickly as possible.