Tom Allen believes the best ideas for governing come from the people. Campaigning last week in his bid to be returned as the 1st Congressional District’s representative, Allen, 57, told reporters and others during visits in Rockland that he sees his job as listening to the concerns of constituents, then translating them into legislation.

“My job is to listen to people here and translate that into national policy,” Allen said.

Early in his tenure, the Democrat said he heard from elderly constituents concerned about the cost of their medical prescriptions. Five years ago, he introduced a bill that would allow Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to purchase drugs at the average price paid by residents of six other industrialized countries. The measure would have provided an average discount of 35 percent for Medicare beneficiaries at no significant cost to government, according to Allen.

The representative said it was the first prescription drug bill introduced in Congress, and one that has widespread support from other lawmakers. But Allen said the Republican leadership in the House has continued to prevent the bill from coming to the floor for a vote, a vote he believes it would win.

“We’re still stuck, [but] I am just determined to keep fighting for this,” he said.

Constituents also expressed the need for campaign finance reform, Allen said, so he worked with others in Congress and co-chaired the effort during his first term.

More recently, Allen said the top concern he hears from constituents is the inability of small-business owners to pay for health insurance for their employees, and the inability of some employees to pay their share of the cost. He has heard reports of 30 percent to 40 percent price increases for health insurance in each of the last three years.

Allen is proposing a “blended public-private” solution, which would have the federal government subsidizing states to create grants for small businesses and the working poor to ease the cost burden of health insurance.

“This kind of blended system can drive up the number of people covered,” he said, which in turn would reduce the costs to others.

Allen opposed the Bush administration’s $1.6 trillion tax cut bill of last year, instead backing an $800 billion tax cut version. He said he fought – unsuccessfully – to include a provision that would have fully funded the federal share of special education costs. The federal government falls $11 billion short of its promised reimbursement for those costs, he said, which means local property taxes make up the difference.

In recent weeks, talk of war with Iraq has dominated Allen’s agenda in Washington – he serves on the Armed Services Committee – and as he travels in Maine. Allen’s Republican opponent, Steven Joyce, has criticized Allen for opposing the move in Congress to give President Bush the authority to wage war on Iraq. Allen voted against the Republican-sponsored bill, which ultimately passed.

“I believe war can be avoided,” he said during a stop at a Rockland radio station. Allen wants to see Bush work with the United Nations and build a coalition of nations to disarm Saddam Hussein. Citing recent briefings from the CIA, he said Iraq is not likely to use biological or nuclear weapons.

The United States should seek what Allen calls “coercive inspections” in Iraq, he said.

“If [Bush] tries all that first, then we can see if we have to use force,” he said. “The president is pushing hard to get this done. We have some time.”

A small group of representatives, including Allen, developed an alternative resolution on Iraq, he said, that would have authorized U.S. military operations only with U.N. Security Council approval. If U.N. efforts proved insufficient, Bush could return to Congress for a fast-track vote on unilateral military action against Iraq.

Allen said the alternative had strong support in Congress, receiving 155 votes, but it did not pass.

In meetings with Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Allen said it was clear “there are people in this administration who want Saddam gone and want us in Baghdad.”

The problem with that thinking, Allen argues, is that after a U.S. war with Iraq, the world would become a very different place.

“The biggest risk is not the military action,” he said, but rather “taking an action which beefs up recruiting for al-Qaida” or has the effect of “lighting a match in the Middle East.”

Should Iraq’s government be ousted, he said, Islamic fundamentalists in Pakistan might overthrow that country’s rulers, causing a chain reaction of events in the Middle East.

Allen, again citing CIA briefings, discounts connections between Iraq and al-Qaida.

“It’s pretty thin stuff,” he said of the evidence the Bush administration has used to make its case.

Calls and letters to his office on the Iraq question have run at a ratio of 100-to-1 against military action, Allen said, though he added he doesn’t believe that ratio reflects the true public sentiment.

Allen said the United States must come to a new understanding “about how we act in the world” on foreign-policy issues like the Middle East, as well as on such matters as international efforts to limit greenhouse gases.

Speaking before the Rockland Rotary last week, Allen said he sees four challenges looming should he be re-elected: health care costs, foreign policy, climate change and Social Security.

On global climate change, Allen said with such trends as the average temperature in Alaska climbing 5 degrees over the last 25 years, the effect of pollution on the climate must be addressed.

He opposes the Bush administration’s proposal to convert some of Social Security’s trust funds to private accounts, a move he said would cost $1 trillion over 10 years, resulting in cuts to the guaranteed benefit to recipients.

Allen first was elected to Congress in 1996. Before that, he served several terms on Portland’s City Council and worked as a lawyer in Portland before seeking federal office. Allen and his wife have two grown children.