Chellie Pingree Undaunted underdog energizes voters

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Chellie Pingree is an energizer. Whether before a group of laid-off garment workers, labor union activists or a team of college students who have knocked on thousands of doors on her behalf during the campaign, the Democratic Senate candidate has a way of pumping up emotions.

As she walked door-to-door through a neighborhood in Portland recently, people came running from their homes to greet her. One man even stopped his car in the middle of the street and jumped out to shake her hand. Outside Portland High School Auditorium before a recent debate, a boisterous crowd of supporters lined the street and chanted her name.

“I believe she is the best person for the state,” said sign-waving supporter Adam Zimmerman of Portland. “Just like Ed Muskie, just like George Mitchell, Chellie Pingree is just what we need in Washington right now.”

At campaign events, the rhythmic chant of “Chel-lie, Chel-lie” echoes through the room the moment she appears on the platform and continues until she begins to speak. On the stump, Pingree reminds her audience of her accomplishments as a state senator and pledges to work for all the people if elected to the U.S. Senate.

“When it’s a choice between the big special interests and the people of Maine, I will always be on your side,” says Pingree.

Pingree is tapping all the energy she has because she knows she faces an uphill battle against first-term Republican Sen. Susan Collins. After six years in the senate, Collins is well-known, has an extensive field organization and has attracted a wealth of campaign contributions. Pingree is undaunted, however, firm in her belief that she would not run if she did not expect to win.

“When the opportunity to run for the U.S. Senate came up, I went into it knowing I could do the work the people of Maine wanted. For the last eight years in the state Legislature, I have

really loved what I have done, and I always hoped there was a way I could continue to serve,” said Pingree during a recent interview.

Pingree, 47, arrived on the island of North Haven as a teenager after graduating high school in Minnesota. Soon she was working a 2-acre piece of land, planting vegetables and selling them to her neighbors. She had some cows and chickens and set up a small farm stand where she sold eggs and other goods. Next came a flock of sheep, and she and some neighbors began gathering the wool for yarn.

Pingree and her neighbors began knitting sweaters and selling them at the vegetable stand to tourists. It wasn’t long before North Island Designs evolved into a full-time business, providing work and income for a number of island women.

Pingree recalls that phase of her life as an important learning experience. It gave her a chance to learn firsthand the struggles of running a small business and the need for employer and employee to work together. Her cottage industry grew over the next 12 years to the point where it sold its products at 1,200 stores nationwide and through hundreds of catalogs, including L.L. Bean and Lands’ End. Pingree sold the company after her election to the Legislature a decade ago.

Though a small business with eight full-time employees, North Island Designs always paid more than the minimum wage and provided health care for its workers.

“You’ve got to be a responsible employer. You live in a small town and these are your friends and neighbors,” she said. “It was a really important learning experience for me. Having a farm was being a small-business person, but for those 12 years I had to meet a payroll, market a product and run a business.”

During that period, she also was raising two daughters and a son and began dabbling in local politics. She served as tax assessor and on the school and planning boards.

“You know what it’s like when you move to a small town and people take awhile to get to know you,” said Pingree. “But running for tax assessor was a real experience for a politician because you’ve got to understand what it is like to be on the other side and assess people’s taxes. You sit there on April 1st each year and people complain about their taxes so you have to think, ‘Well, did we do that right?'”

Pingree was content to raise her family on the island and tend to her business until late 1992 when she attended an address by Rep. Pat Schroeder, a Colorado Democrat. Schroeder talked about the need for more women in politics. It was after that speech that a friend approached her about running for the Maine Senate seat representing Knox and parts of Waldo counties.

“I immediately thought ‘that’s crazy,’ I’ve got a payroll to meet, I’ve got a business, I’m chair of the school board, my kids are all teenagers and I live on an island,'” Pingree recalled. “And Hannah [her daughter] was with me and I turned to her and I said, ‘Well, Hannah, what do you think?’ She turned to me and said, ‘Go for it.’ It was one of those moments.”

Hannah Pingree is now 25 and herself a candidate for the Legislature from House District 129, representing the islands and portions of Hancock County.

“When we talked about it, I said to her, ‘Go for it, Hannah.’ It was kind of funny coming back to that 10 years later,” said Pingree.

Besides working on her own campaign, Hannah Pingree also plays a major role in her mother’s. Cecily Pingree, 23, and Asa Pingree, 21, also work on her U.S. Senate campaign. Cecily has helped with the production of her mother’s campaign ads, and Asa is one of the group of young campaign workers who have knocked on more than 190,000 doors on behalf of his mother.

When first campaigning for the state Senate seat a decade ago, Pingree doubted her chances of winning.

As a resident of an island with a population of only 350, she had a small foundation to build on. And she was running for a seat traditionally held by Republicans, including Collins’ uncle, retired supreme court Judge Sam Collins of Rockland. The district contains about 40 percent registered Republicans, 40 percent independents and 20 percent Democrats.

“I was definitely a long shot,” she said. “But I did what everybody’s got to do to run for office. I knocked on doors, I went to 5,000 houses, bean suppers, chicken pie suppers. … I won by 62 percent of the vote.”

Two years later, when the Republicans gained control of the Senate in 1995, Pingree was shifted from the Legislature’s Business and Economic Development Committee to the Health and Human Services Committee. It was to have a profound impact on her political career.

“It was a really important learning experience because that’s where most of the money gets spent. I got to understand long-term care issues, health care issues, and I also got put on a commission to study the cost of prescription drugs,” she said.

That was the genesis of Maine Rx, the bill that allows the state to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies for low-cost prescription drugs. It was the first legislation of its kind in the country and is being challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court by both the Bush administration and the large drug companies who support Republican candidates.

“We knew the pharmaceutical manufacturers would take us to court. There was no question that if we were going to be the first state in the nation to pass this that we were going to be leading the way. We knew that if we paved the way it would allow other states to do it and hopefully the federal government,” said Pingree. “When that passed, a drug company lobbyist warned me that I’d never get another campaign contribution. And you know what, they’ve been true to their word,” said Pingree.

Maine Rx shot Pingree into the national spotlight. When she announced her intentions to challenge Collins a year ago, Pingree cited health care and prescription drugs as issues that needed to be addressed in Washington.

Pingree’s underdog status against the incumbent Collins has not dampened her enthusiasm or ability to attract supporters. Her stance on issues soon opened doors to financial support from labor unions and women’s groups. Major Democratic figures such as current Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and former Majority Leader George Mitchell supported her candidacy and helped her to raise funds. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., stumped with her in Maine and former President Clinton also made an appearance. All told, Pingree has raised more than $3 million for her campaign.

Pingree sees jobs, health care and education as all being tied together. They are issues where Maine people are experiencing difficulties – whether seniors unable to pay for drugs, working people unable to buy health care or manufacturing workers losing their jobs in the shift to offshore companies in the Third World.

“When you talk to people, you know they are hurting,” said Pingree. “I’ve lived in a fishing community for 30 years, and nobody minces any words with me. They tell me exactly what’s on their mind. They know the difference between what they are being told and what is really happening.”