Traffic still heavy on Maine’s campaign trail

AUGUSTA – With fewer than two weeks before the election, the campaign trail is getting plenty of traffic in Maine from both presidential candidates’ organizations.

Between Tuesday and next Monday, no fewer than six appearances were scheduled in Maine by representatives of President Bush and Sen. John Kerry, and Maine is likely to wind up on the itinerary for other surrogates in the days ahead.

“We’re in the absolute final home stretch, and both campaigns are trying to put on the finishing touches,” University of Maine political science professor Mark Brewer said Tuesday. “Any place where they still think they can pick up electoral votes, they have to put on a strong presence.”

On Tuesday, Russell Train, who headed the Environmental Protection Agency under Presidents Nixon and Ford, was in Bar Harbor to tout Kerry’s efforts to promote clean-air and -water laws and alternative energy.

Retired Gen. Merrill “Tony” McPeak, a Republican who headed the U.S. Air Force during Operation Desert Storm, made campaign stops Wednesday for Kerry in Bangor and Lewiston. McPeak is considered one of several possible candidates for defense secretary if Kerry wins.

A frequent Maine visitor and part-time resident, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card was in Lewiston on Wednesday to meet with small-business owners. U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois also will pitch for Bush when he visits Bangor next Monday.

The Bush and Kerry campaigns both say the busy schedule of appearances reflects their candidates’ commitment to winning Maine on Nov. 2.

Seeing virtually all of the stops for both sides in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District suggests that Kerry has a commanding lead in southern Maine’s 1st District, Democrats say.

Jesse Derris, the Kerry-Edwards campaign spokesman in Maine, said the Democrats are focusing heavily on the 2nd District, and he expects the heavy traffic there to continue.

Democrats say that as the days go on, their message will shift from the issues to energizing voters.

The Bush-Cheney campaign is conceding none of Maine, said state campaign chairman Peter Cianchette, a Republican who won more votes than Democrat John Baldacci in the 2002 gubernatorial election in the 1st District but still lost the four-way race.

“President Bush can win in the 1st Congressional District, and there’s no doubt his campaign is doing very well in the 2nd District,” Cianchette said.

Polling data show the presidential race to be in close contention in Maine, one of a dozen states that could come into play in the closing days of the campaign.

The contestants’ campaigns will be in those states ready to pounce on breaking issues on which their opponents are vulnerable, Brewer said.

“I think that Maine is very much in play, and that the surrogates are here to show that the campaigns care and to energize campaigners,” said Sandy Maisel, director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs at Colby College. “But we are a small state, with really only one vote in play, which is why we see these people and not Kerry or Bush.”

Relatives of the candidates continue to make campaign appearances in Maine. Kerry’s stepson Andre Heinz will urge voter participation and talk about the environment when he visits the University of Maine on Thursday.

President Bush’s wife, Laura, and their daughters already have campaigned in Maine, as have the president himself and Vice President Cheney.

Vice presidential candidate John Edwards has campaigned in Maine twice in recent weeks, and his wife, Elizabeth, will make her second visit to Maine later this week, with stops in Waterville on Friday and Auburn on Saturday.

A current Bush Cabinet member, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, was scheduled to attend a forum at the University of Maine at Presque Isle Wednesday with Brian Hamel, the GOP candidate for Maine’s 2nd District seat.

On Saturday, political author and commentator Al Franken and Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe will join U.S. Rep. Michael Michaud, Hamel’s Democratic rival, at a campaign rally at Colby College in Waterville.