“Sensitive” Malloy Announcement Causes Portland Press Herald to Disable Comments.

Do they already know in Maine what Connecticut learned to its sorrow for eight years? The announcement that Dannel P. Malloy will lead the University of Maine was deemed a sensitive topic but the Portland Press Herald, causing the newspaper to shutdown its comments section on a generous profile of the former two-term governor.

The end of the story is followed by this announcement: “Comments are disabled on some stories about sensitive topics.” The announcement of a new chancellor for a state university would not seem a likely topic for that restriction. Either Connecticut residents are wanted to warn their New England neighbors on what to expect or Maine readers of the state’s largest newspaper already know and wanted to be heard.

They may know of Malloy’s antipathy for public school teachers and his disdain for state Department of Transportation drivers who remove snow. Others may be familiar with his 2014 decision to refuse to provide shelter for child refugees. Some may remember that Malloy could not explain why for a year his Department of Labor overstated job growth by 100%. There may be good government types in both states who still wonder about that enormous fine state Democrats paid for an election finance violation in order to keep campaign communications and other documents secret.

As another former governor leaves Connecticut, Maine residents will want to ask questions in places other than the comments section of the Portland paper.