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home > radio > maine news > news story Maine NewsMaine's Democratic and Republican Parties Gear Up For Next Phase of the 2008 Election
On Wednesday, members Maine's Democratic Party put on a display of unity after wrapping up the primaries on Tuesday night. Following a keenly watched, and at times divisive, six-way contest to represent Maine's First Congressional District in November's election, the five losing candidates showed up to throw their weight behind winner Chellie Pingree. No one did it more enthusiastically than Ethan Strimling: "Are we ready to take back the White House or what - come on now - are ready to get Tom Allen to the US Senate or what - come on now - are we ready to get the first Democrat woman elected to higher office in Maine or what! Come on now!" Six years ago, Pingree tried unsuccessfully to win a U.S. Senate seat in a race against Republican Susan Collins. Now she is once again edging closer to a seat in Washington. She acknowledged her latest primary campaign had been tough and that the candidates had had their differences: "With a long campaign, an entire year, we did get to know each others' lines, each others' differences, we pushed each other in debate in ways we didn't know it would go, but we really strengthened our party, the race in this district and I feel very privileged to have been a part of that." USM Political Science professor Ron Schmidt says the priority for Maine's Democrats now is to move ahead with their two national campaigns: "They're going to want to make sure that Tom Allen carves out a statewide identity for himself, in opposition to Susan Collins, and that the Pingree campaign gets moving immediately against Charlie Summers." Schmidt says the key challenge for both parties over the next five months is to win the political middle ground. He believes Pingree has already started to do this by reaching out to the politically uncommitted. He says, "I think Pingree to some degree has already in some way positioned herself to talk to those people. I think the impeachment talk is getting less play, at least in terms of her campaign. I think they're going to want to try to reach out to voters who might not otherwise someone they see as potentially being more liberal." Pingree's runner up Adam Cote - a former Republican - was regarded as the more moderate of the Democrats, someone who bought a lot of newcomers into the party. He says the challenge now is to keep them: "We met a lot of different people. We have a lot of new people that are enrolled in the Democratic Party now, and what we have to remember is that some of them are there because of the terrible policies of President Bush, but how we're going to keep them is through the ideas." Ideas which were articulated by fellow candidate Mike Brennan, as he considered Pingree's Republican rival, "All we need to do is really answer the question about why Charlie Summers is not going to end the war in Iraq, why Charlie Summers is not going to bring us a single payer healthcare system, about why Charlie Summers is not going to give us a renewable energy policy and why Charlie Summers is going to allow children in this country to continue to go without education. Because Chellie Pingree, when she's elected in November, is going to make sure that all those things happen." Julie Ann O'Brien, executive director of Maine's Republican Party, says the GOP is unified behind Summers, and she expects voters in November to do the same - partly because they're fed up with the tax burden. She explains, "I think people are tired of big government, of tax and spend, I think they're ready to pull back in. I think Charlie Summers is a wonderful candidate and people will rally behind him." O'Brien is hopeful that Maine's Republicans will be able to take back some of the middle ground claimed by moderate Adam Cote, some of whose supporters might back away from a candidate perceived as too liberal. Bowdoin professor of government Chris Potholm says Charlie Summers' relatively moderate stance means he's well positioned to build the party's base of support. Potholm explains, "In my polling ever since the first of the year, between 10 and 15 percent of people who would normally identify themselves as Republicans, don't say they're Republicans. They say they're Independents or in some cases Democrats." He says the last time he saw anything like that was when President Nixon was impeached in 1974.
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