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Pingree in District 1
October 23, 2008 Times Record.
Chellie Pingree offers residents of Maine's 1st U.S. House District a mix of experience and vision that would serve the district well if she's elected to Congress. Her résumé and blueprint for representing Maine values in Washington make Pingree the choice over Republican Charlie Summers in the contest to succeed Tom Allen.
As a small business owner, legislator and executive director of Common Cause, Pingree spent 30 years honing leadership skills necessary to bridge the cultural gap between southern Maine and Washington, D.C., and to serve as an effective first-term member of Congress.
Pingree and Summers both merit high praise for running honest, positive campaigns. Their focus on issues and promoting positive agendas provides welcome respite from the acid-spewing that dominates the presidential election and contaminates the U.S. Senate race between Allen and Sen. Susan Collins.
In a competition between two laudable candidates, Pingree's positions on the war in Iraq and energy policy elevate her above Summers as the best candidate to represent District 1.
Her long-standing, principled stance against the Iraq war and her commitment to press for a systematic but timely withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq represent a realistic appraisal of the war's debilitating impact on both this nation's economy and our status in the world.
Recognizing that a discussion of whether the United States can "win" the war only exacerbates the negative repercussions and elevates the casualty toll, she asserts that the United States needs to stem the flow of a $10 billion monthly war tab and divert it to pressing domestic needs.
"We can't continue to squander our resources on the worst foreign policy mistake in our country's history," Pingree asserts on her Web site. "Leaving will be complicated, but staying only continues the tragic loss of our soldiers, Iraqi citizens and almost unthinkable amounts of money."
Dating back to her days as a state senator, Pingree has advocated promotion of clean, renewable energy production as a way to create and retain good jobs in Maine.
Conversely, Summers toes the Republican Party line that the United States can achieve energy independence by more widespread offshore drilling and greater reliance on nuclear energy. Those positions ignore the fact that U.S. oil reserves fall far short of demand and that, if anything, the nation is further removed from a solution on spent fuel storage than it was when Maine Yankee was decommissioned in 1997.
Pingree's admirable accomplishments as Senate majority leader to move Maine forward on health care reform, which will be a key topic for the next Congress, also positions her well to be the best representative for the 1st District.
