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PORTLAND, Maine When Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez arrive at the State Theatre tonight, David Bright would be there. Bright, an organic farmer who helped Sanders win the states Democratic caucuses, was one of Maines four voters in the electoral college. Hed used that role to cast a protest vote for Sanders, relenting and casting a futile vote for Hillary Clinton only after state law forced him to.

His opinion of the Democratic Partys establishment had not improved much since then.

The DNC has dropped the ball on one congressional campaign after another, Bright said in an interview before driving from his farm to Portland. The only way Perez would be safe to come to Maine is to have Bernie by his side. Otherwise, progressives in this state would tear him apart.

Portland, the bluest dot in a state that has trended Republican in recent years, is the launchpad for a week-long Sanders/Perez campaign tour. The team-up came last month, but last week, when Democrats lost a closer-than-expected House race in Kansas, the reasons for doing it became clearer. While energy on the left has risen since November, the partys base can still tumble into debates about who to blame for its defeats, with the left doing most of the talking.

The Perez-Sanders tour will not go through any state holding a congressional election soon, though it will boost Heath Mello, the Democrat running for mayor of Omaha. In a Monday morning interview on NPR, Perez praised Mello and said that Democrats had contributed to the Kansas race in ways that perhaps had gone unseen.

We invested in the following ways: When people were out there knocking on doors, they were using the DNCs voter file, he said. We were monitoring the election very closely with the state party. We did robo-calls at their request. Pointing to the 20-point swing toward Democrats, Perez said that if we replicate that success everywhere, we will flip the House in 2018.

James Thompson, the Kansas Democrat who lost last week, wrote on Twitter that disappointed progressives should focus on upcoming races instead of casting blame. Colin Curtis, Thompsons campaign manager, said that some people just want to be angry, and while the Democratic Party support had been pro forma, it hadnt been a surprise.

Do I wish they would have come in earlier? Sure, Curtis said. But at the end of the day we didnt plan on them doing it.

Progressives were not just critical of the partys spending they were critical of its messaging. Brett Vars, a 23-year-old who works at a grocery store outside Maines largest city, showed up to the State Theatre seven hours before Sanders was set to speak. He liked Perezs record as labor secretary, but was disappointed with how he talked about the Democratic Party, with lines about leading with our values that did not get into policy. In 2016, hed voted for the Green Partys Jill Stein for president, and was hopeful about Democrats, but also interested in Maines new ranked-choice voting law, which could benefit a left-wing third party.

It would be interesting to see what the Green Party could do if it got some power, Vars said.

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Perez-Sanders tour kicks off in Maine amid progressive skepticism - Bangor Daily News