Endorsements Heat Up Race in Maine's 1st District

September 11, 2007
Congressional Quarterly
By Jessica Benton Cooney

Democratic Rep. Tom Allen's decision to leave his Maine 1st District seat to pursue a challenge to Sen. Susan Collins is creating a crowded field to replace him from both major parties. While there is still no obvious frontrunner in the campaign, which boasts six announced candidates, Democrat Chellie Pingree, is leading the pack in fundraising and received an additional boost with a recent endorsement by Emily's List.

"Chellie is fabulous," said Jonathan Parker, political director for Emily's List, the political action committee that assists pro-choice Democratic women to political office. "In our assessment, she is the strongest candidate in the race."

Pingree served eight years in the Maine state Senate, part of that time as majority leader; was President of Common Cause; and herself challenged Collins in 2002 (garnering 41.6 percent of the vote).

Citing that Maine has never elected a Democratic woman to higher office, Lisa Prosienski, press secretary for Pingree, said the endorsement helps, while demurring that Pingree is the leader of the race. "I think it's too early for anyone to take anything for granted, but we have a lot of very encouraging momentum," she said.

With the war in Iraq a central issue, Pingree, who wants to "bring the troops home," may be strongly challenged by Democrat Adam Cote, who was a platoon leader in the Maine Army National Guard's 133rd Engineer Battalion in Iraq in 2004 and 2005, and an Army reservist in Bosnia in 1997 and 1998

Cote recently announced an endorsement by VoteVets.org, whose board members include retired Army General Wesley Clark and former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey. The organization works to elect veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan to Congress regardless of party.

Stating that the assistance is a sign of national momentum in their direction, Emily Boyle, Cote's political director, said, "It would have been a pain not to get the endorsement."

Cote, an attorney from Portland, said after the endorsement that ending the Iraq war is his first priority for U.S. military policy.

He added, "Effective treatment for the physical and psychological wounds our soldiers have suffered in this conflict must rise to the top of Capitol Hill's to-do list."

While acknowledging that Cote has raised less money and has less name recognition than others in the Democratic field, Boyle said, "We are right where we hope and expect to be. We are building [the campaign] from ground zero."

Carol Andrews, communications director for the Maine Democratic Party, believes that the 1st District race is well represented by a strong field of candidates to replace Allen, who is leaving his seat after six terms: "They are all out campaigning, working it."

The other Democratic candidates include Michael Brennan, another former Maine Senate majority leader; Mark Lawrence, the district attorney for York County and the unsuccessful Democratic challenger to Sen. Olympia Snowe in 2000; and a potential run by state Sen. Ethan Strimling.

While Strimling is still weighing a run, adviser Dennis Bailey said the decision would be based on money and whether Strimling has enough support to be competitive, adding that he will make a decision in the next months.

Portland City Councilor Jill Duson, announced last week that she will be stepping out of the Democratic race, citing money as the main determining factor in her decision.

"Most of the folks whom I consulted put the minimum budget needed to be competitive in this primary at half a million dollars or more," Duson wrote in a press release, adding that family responsibilities and work commitments were also factors.

Jim Melcher, associate professor of political science of the University of Maine in Farmington, said Duson "read the writing on the wall, she would have trouble fundraising."

On the Republican front, Julie Anne O' Brien, the executive director of the Maine Republican Party, concurred that it is to early to discern a frontrunner. "Right now it is just a campaign of personalities -- the Iraq war is really the only issue that defines any of the candidates," she said.

All Republican candidates in the 1st, which includes Portland, Maine's largest city, will face a tough haul in the Democratic-leaning district.

O'Brien said that Dean Scontras, a self-employed resident of York County, in the southern end of the district, is the "more public" of the Republicans, and that he is playing on his newcomer status. She added that "there are a lot of people that like his idea of not 'politics as usual.'"

But Charlie Summers might have the most name recognition among the Republicans, for two reasons. He left his wife Ruth to campaign for him while stationed in Iraq for a one-year deployment with the Navy, and garnered an early endorsement from his Kennebunkport, Maine, neighbors ex-President George H.W. Bush, and former first lady Barbara Bush, who both contributed money to his campaign.

Also on the list of potential Republican candidates, Steve Abbott, current chief of staff for Collins, said he still hasn't decided whether he will officially throw his name into the race. But if he runs, he said he would "probably declare in early January."

Rounding out the undecided Republican list, according to O'Brien, is state Sen. Jon Courtney. Darlene Curley, a former state representative who lost by 61 percent to 31 percent as Allen's 2006 Republican opponent, also has been mentioned as considering the race.

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