March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Lamar Alexander brings campaign to Maine

PORTLAND — He will not formally announce his candidacy for president until later this month, but Lamar Alexander has already been campaigning in Maine as a political outsider.

“What the issue is, is the arrogance of Washington. … I think that a governor, someone from outside Washington, D.C., is likely to be the best nominee for our party,” said Alexander, who served as governor of Tennessee for eight years.

Alexander, who was also secretary of education for two years during the Bush administration, was in Maine Sunday to speak at a dinner in West Bath.

“My background is very different than the others,” Alexander said at the Portland International Jetport. Alexander said his experience as a governor, university president, businessman and former Cabinet member gives him a broader view of the country’s needs than candidates coming from Capitol Hill.

“The biggest challenge is to let the people know who I am. I am obviously not as well known as the candidates who have been around Washington for a while,” he said, such as Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole of Kansas, Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas and Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter.

Alexander said he plans to formally announce his candidacy Feb. 28, and is expected to kick off his fund-raising campaign with a $2 million dinner in Nashville, Tenn., on March 6.

He has hired six former Republican national finance directors to help him accumulate a campaign war chest, and plans to travel to 25 fund-raising events across the nation during the next several months.

In terms of policy, Alexander is highly critical of the Clinton administration’s approach toward issues such as health care and education.

He said he is in favor of abolishing the U.S. Department of Education and beginning market-based health care reform. He also supports congressional pay cuts and enacting a balanced budget amendment, giving the president a line item veto.


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