Rise, Decline and Renewal tells the remarkable story of the Maine Democratic Party – how it rose from irrelevance in 1954 with the election of Governor Ed Muskie, challenged the ruling Republican Party over the next two decades, and passed wide-ranging reform that produced a model government for a state long perceived as a cultural and economic backwater. Now, Maine’s largest political party can again seize the initiative, energize a new generation of young people, and govern in the public interest once more.