Pingree joins push for ending Iraq war

March 17, 2008 Portland Press Herald by Jonathan Kaplan.

Chellie Pingree of Maine is one of 11 Democratic congressional candidates who will be in Washington today to promote a liberal platform that they hope will boost their political fortunes.

The 41-page plan, which calls for a withdrawal from Iraq, proposes implementing many of the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan commission that issued a report in 2006 recommending the United States pursue more diplomacy in Iraq.

The plan, which will be presented at the Take Back America Conference, also proposes letting state agencies sue telecommunications companies that cooperated with the Bush administration's domestic spying program and giving the general public more say in FCC rulings that decide media ownership rules.

The document also recommends passing a law prohibiting future presidents from issuing so-called "signing statements" -- proclamations, issued when laws are signed, that may exempt the chief executive from abiding by some of the provisions.

"This is a group of candidates running for office, and there is a frustration because Washington is unwilling to acknowledge that the war will not be won and we need to end the war," said Pingree, one of six Democrats running for Maine's 1st Congressional District seat. She helped edit the document.

The event is as much about politics as the proposed policies, which liberal House Democrats have been unable to get through committees.

Pingree is using the event to promote herself as one of the Democratic Party's top-tier congressional candidates -- and to distinguish herself from the five other candidates in the race to win the seat that Democrat Tom Allen is giving up to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

Pingree said today's event is also about issues.

"It is not just to separate myself from the pack," she said. "We candidates are coming in with what we hope will be a very strong mandate for change."

She said the candidates want to "send a signal to Democratic leaders that there are a lot of candidates who are frustrated that the Congress does not look responsive to the public."

Others in the group of 11 include activist Donna Edwards, who defeated Rep. Al Wynn in Maryland's Democratic primary last month, and Rep. Bill Foster, who won a special election last week for the seat once held by Republican Dennis Hastert, a former House speaker.

Edwards served on the board of Common Cause when Pingree was the chairwoman. Pingree also attended candidate-training events with Darcy Burner, a former Microsoft executive from Washington state who ran a losing race for Congress in 2006.

Burner drafted the manifesto while the candidates contributed thoughts and edited drafts, Pingree said.

Pingree, who lost to Collins in the 2002 Senate race, will face Michael Brennan, a former state senator; Adam Cote, a lawyer and former Army officer who served in Iraq; Mark Lawrence, a former state senator; Steve Meister, a physician; and state Rep. Ethan Strimling in the primary.

The Republican candidates are Dean Scontras, a businessman, and Charlie Summers, a former state senator.

The Iraq war and impeachment proceedings against Vice President Dick Cheney have become issues in the Democratic race.

Brennan and Pingree have said they would vote to cut funding for the Iraq war. Lawrence and Strimling said they do not favor additional funding without a deadline for leaving Iraq. Cote favors a deadline to withdraw troops but would not cut funding. Meister would not vote for a deadline or to restrict funding.

Lawrence, Pingree and Strimling have said Congress should hold impeachment hearings; Brennan has suggested holding hearings on the warrantless wiretapping program and use of torture, which Congress has done.

Meister favors an independent investigation into potential wrongdoing in the administration. Cote criticized Bush, but said impeachment would not affect the war in Iraq.

Pingree, who sees herself as the Democratic frontrunner, sent a polling memo to reporters last week showing that she leads the field with 38 percent of the vote.

Strimling and Brennan garnered 9 percent of the vote, but 33 percent were uncommitted.

"She is running as if she has already won the primary," said Sandy Maisel, a Colby College political scientist. "I think she, Brennan and Strimling are all going for the same votes. I have no idea, nor do I think anyone else does, how it will shake out when the voters start paying attention."

Maisel has given $500 to Cote, a Colby graduate, according to Federal Election Commission records.

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