The bulging guest book at Jimmy Simones’ Hot Dog Stand in Lewiston is filled with the names of the state’s best-known – and little-known – politicians.

On a recent swing through the pivotal Androscoggin County city, Republican congressional candidate Tim Woodcock of Bangor signed his name to the tome, a virtual who’s who of local politicos, staffers, journalists and plain-old hot dog lovers.

“I think I’ve already signed it,” he first told George Simones, the owner’s father, who insisted that the candidate again document his visit.

It isn’t the hot dogs – although Woodcock did take a moment to partake of the eatery’s specialty – that brought the former Bangor mayor to town.

The tiny downtown eatery at the foot of Lewiston City Hall has become a traditional stop for those running for office in the 2nd Congressional District, where this year Woodcock faces three Republican rivals in the June primary for the open seat.

Woodcock, 50, has been spending a lot of time in the district’s largest city, where earlier in the day he made a high-profile campaign stop with former Secretary of Defense Bill Cohen, who stumped for his former aide at a local hotel.

Checking his watch after arriving at the Ramada Inn a half-hour early for the Cohen event, Woodcock quipped, “Let’s put it this way, we don’t want to be late for this.”

At the event, Cohen told the 30 or so Woodcock supporters in the hotel’s Ritz Room that his former staffer had the skills to serve in Washington.

“He doesn’t have to learn on the job,” said Cohen, who like Woodcock, also served as Bangor’s mayor. “He comes fully prepared the day he starts to carry out the responsibilities.”

Now a practicing attorney in Bangor, Woodcock served in Washington for several years under the then-U.S. senator as a legal counsel in the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act and an investigator in the Iran-Contra hearings a few years later.

“I would hold my experience in Washington against anybody’s,” Woodcock said, a thinly

veiled allusion to the “Ready on Day One” campaign slogan used by rival Kevin Raye, a longtime chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe.

While Woodcock’s ties to Cohen could prove helpful, analysts say, issues win campaigns.

Woodcock rattled off recent census figures that he said demonstrate a troubling exodus of the district’s youth to points south for higher paying jobs.

In his address at the Maine Republican Party State Convention in Augusta earlier this month, the candidate called the lack of economic opportunity “the issue” for the district, where the median incomes pale in comparison to that of the 1st District.

“When I was growing up, we had no question that we could make our lives here,” said Woodcock, who has three children, the eldest of whom will attend his alma mater, Bowdoin College, in the fall. “That is no longer the case.”

On the stump, Woodcock also points to the need to “end the isolation” of the northern two-thirds of Maine by supporting an East-West Highway and I-95 extension to the northernmost reaches of Aroostook County.

Thus far the East-West Highway, the price tag for which approaches $1 billion, has proved elusive for the state, which sits near the bottom of the pack in terms of federal highway spending.

In an effort to increase the relatively rural region’s political clout in Washington, Woodcock said he would look to forge regional alliances with northern New Hampshire and Vermont and eastern New York, all of which are lagging behind their states’ southern counterparts in terms of income and economic opportunity, he said.

In his convention address, Woodcock said he would look to correct the unfair Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement formulas, which penalize rural areas. He also said he would work toward full federal funding of the special education mandate.

Woodcock is in hopes those issues will help put him into the seat, which before U.S. Rep. John Baldacci was held for 24 straight years by Republicans – first Cohen and, later, Cohen’s former aide Snowe.

A framed photo of Snowe talking with George Simones over the lunch counter is one of those hanging inside the downtown Lewiston landmark.

Like Cohen, Woodcock is looking to finish strong in this city, despite its Democratic roots and the fact that GOP rival state Rep. Stavros Mendros hails from here.

At a small table inside the restaurant, Woodcock doesn’t take his status as a front-runner for granted. But he has no disagreement with Democratic candidate Lori Handrahan’s recent assessment that, in a general election, he “is certainly going to be hard to beat.”

“She’s right,” Woodcock said, smiling.

On the Net: www.woodcockforcongress.com