Candidates await fate for 2nd District seat 10 primary hopefuls prepare for final push in ‘wide-open’ congressional race

BANGOR – The campaign signs are positioned just so on nearly every intersection in this city and in just about every other one-stoplight town in the northern half of the state.

The candidates’ faces are difficult to miss on television as are their voices on the radio.

And the gaggle of hopefuls for Maine’s open 2nd District congressional seat is taking to the highways in the final days of the campaign, looking to squeeze every vote out of the vast district before the June 11 primary.

But covering the largest congressional district east of the Mississippi River is no easy task, all agree.

“We’re all running on adrenaline right now,” said Kathie Summers, Kevin Raye’s campaign aide, in the midst of planning the Republican candidate’s “Cut the Mustard Tour.” The tour will feature a five-day traversing of the district during which Raye will take a gas grill to more than 20 towns, greeting supporters from Bethel to Eastport and flipping burgers – garnished, of course, with the mustard that bears his family name.

Raye, one of four Republicans and six Democrats vying for the seat, will have plenty of company on the highway.

Democrat Lori Handrahan has spent the past week in Lewiston, where she has teamed up with the city’s former mayor, Kaileigh Tara, to film a television commercial set to run in the Portland market.

After spending much of her time in the district’s smaller cities, the Sorrento Democrat’s Lewiston visit, as well as a planned trip to Bangor before the election, could work to her benefit, aides say, in what will likely prove a close race.

“Everybody says it’s still wide-open,” Handrahan aide David Broder said Thursday. “We’re doing as much as we can.”

So, too, aides say, is David Costello of Lewiston, who, like Handrahan, is in his first political run and has been considered a long shot for the Democratic nomination.

“We’re not going to be running all around, but we’re going to be making some noise and see what happens,” said Jarrod Dumas, Costello’s communications director. “I think were going to surprise some people.”

Republican Dick Campbell said he is trying to avoid any surprises in the final week, especially during a western Maine campaign stop, where he plans to take a spin in a stock car Saturday at Oxford Plains Speedway.

“If I’m still around after that, we’ll start the hour-by-hour campaign around the district,” he said of his plans to travel throughout the district updating his supporters every hour on his whereabouts.

Sen. Susan Longley of Liberty will also spend some time in her native Lewiston before the primary, according to her campaign manager.

“She’s going to cover as much ground in the district as possible,” said Longley aide Rosemary Baldacci. “But it’s basically Lewiston, Bangor and Waldo County.”

Part of Longley’s weekend could include fending off allegations from Democratic rival Mike Michaud, whose campaign has cried foul over a telephone poll that supposedly favors Longley and trashes Michaud, a millworker.

Longley has steadfastly denied any knowledge of the poll.

“We really feel like since the convention ours is the campaign that has momentum,” said Michaud campaign manager Peter Chandler. “We have a different type of candidate, and some organizations are threatened by that.”

Leeds dairy farmer John Nutting, whose sometimes quirky commercials have saturated the evening airwaves in the Bangor markets for weeks, has started his last sweep of the district including a media blitz of the Portland market.

“The race is to be won or lost in our hometown,” said Mike Carey, Nutting’s campaign manager, of the state senator’s proximity to Lewiston. “In a six-way primary, anything can happen.”

Stavros Mendros, a Republican from Lewiston, also has an ambitious schedule in the next five days, looking to knock on 5,000 doors in a week.

With his final blitz dubbed the “Victory Tour,” Mendros said, “Republicans lose because we’re afraid to take our message to the streets, and to the people. ”

Republican Tim Woodcock of Bangor will be spending much of the rest of the week in western Maine, his aides say, coming back to his hometown early next week to shore up support in the Queen City.

“We’re feeling the momentum,” said Scott Cuddy, an aide to Woodcock, who this week won endorsements from the Bangor Daily News and the Portland Press Herald.

Also from Bangor, former state Sen. Sean Faircloth will head to Aroostook County and the St. John Valley as part of his last swing through the state.

“We’re just doing our work and staying focused on our campaign,” said Aymie Walshe, an aide to Faircloth, who also won endorsements from the state’s two major newspapers. “We hear a lot of things from different people about who they think is going to win, but I don’t think anybody knows.”