Effective in minority U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, Democrat 1st Congressional District

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The obligatory October campaign swing through the northeastern part of the 1st Congressional District included the typical stops – visits to an elementary school in Boothbay Harbor and a Camden nursing home, meetings with two newspaper editorial boards in Rockland and Camden.

Rep. Tom Allen, the four-term Democratic incumbent, had been in Washington for much of the past several weeks and so had been unable to do much campaigning up to this point. He was making up for it on this day with a full schedule.

As Allen finished a noisy tour of the Fisher snowplow plant in Rockland, the company’s general manager, Ray Littlefield, made an offhand comment about litigation reform.

Littlefield told Allen the company supports laws to make it harder to file liability lawsuits, because increasingly, victims of vehicle collisions are suing the plow manufacturer, arguing the plow gear increased injuries.

That slightly different take on a familiar political issue seemed to intrigue Allen more than the workings of the plant, betraying the candidate’s “wonkish” approach to elected office.

He admitted he hadn’t thought about that angle of the tort reform issue, and the glance he directed at his aide suggested it would be further explored.

Earlier in the day, at the William Atwood Lobster Co. on Spruce Head Island, Allen seemed at ease during a tour of that facility, asking questions about the sorting and shipping process and introducing himself to workers.

But again it was when Allen sat down in a conference room with company founder Bill Atwood and general manager Shannon Kinney that he seemed most in his element.

Kinney explained how the business was unable this year to get the necessary documents to bring workers from Newfoundland for the busy summer season.

Allen reviewed an outline Kinney had prepared about the issue and asked a few pointed questions.

How Allen manages such constituent service work has been made an issue by his opponent, Republican Charlie Summers. Summers criticized Allen for maintaining just one office in the district and not making his staff more accessible to constituents.

Allen has countered that his predecessors – from both parties – have tried to maintain multiple offices in the district, as Summers suggests, but ended up closing them.

Allen’s staffers also say that Summers, a former aide to U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, is forgetting that members of the House have significantly smaller constituent service budgets than their Senate counterparts.

Allen’s staffers add that most constituent contact comes via phone calls and e-mails, and that one central office is more efficient.

A former lawyer who served on the Portland City Council, Allen, 59, has been in the minority party in the House of Representatives since he defeated Republican James Longley Jr. in 1996.

Though he expressed frustration at being shut out of much of the legislative action directed by the majority party, Allen has found ways to be a player in the debate, he said.

To illustrate, Allen described his role in the days leading up to the invasion of Iraq. He and several other House members, including Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., crafted what they believed was a compromise to what the Republicans and President Bush were seeking.

The Allen-Spratt amendment would have authorized the president to use the military to enforce a resolution from the United Nations, but would have required him to return to Congress to seek a fast-track approval of a U.S.-only invasion.

The amendment won 155 votes, which Allen called significant support, but not enough to change the outcome.

Summers also has criticized Allen on his decision to leave the House Armed Services Committee for a seat on the Energy and Commerce Committee. Allen counters that in his years on Armed Services, he developed the relationships that are needed to protect Maine’s military businesses and bases.

Freshman legislators typically seek membership on Armed Services, he said, but in later terms seek more influence on committees with more reach. Armed Services passes just one bill each session, he said, and does not control the purse strings on defense bills.

On Energy and Commerce, Allen is able to review health care reform bills, such as the Bush Medicare bill, which he opposed.

“It’s too expensive, too complicated,” he said. “It will die under its own weight.”

Allen said he would not celebrate the plan’s failure, but rather argued it reveals the importance of Republicans seeking Democratic input on policy, something that has been lacking in the past two years, he said.

Allen supports presidential candidate John Kerry’s health care overhaul plan, calling it “the best of the plans that are out there right now.” He pledged to be “a voice for Maine” on the coming health care reform debates.

“I don’t think there’s a bigger issue than health care,” he said.

The committee also is working on efforts to find cheaper energy, Allen said.

“I’m really worried. I think we need a whole different energy policy,” he said, one which focuses on renewable sources and conservation. “We’ll never drill our way out of this.”

Energy and Commerce also addresses some environmental issues, Allen said, such as the Bush administration’s push to relax standards on air pollution.

Allen supported a bill to have stricter standards on Midwest plants that emit mercury, nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide – four pollutants linked to global warming, acid rain and asthma.

Allen and his wife, Diana, live in Portland and are the parents of two grown children.

Allen on the issues:

Iraq War-terrorism: Opposed giving president authority to invade; believes United States must stay to restore order.

Economy-taxes: Reform of system needed to allow more access and negotiated prices on drugs.

Health care: Opposed deficit spending under Bush administration; would repeal Bush tax cuts to those earning $200,000 or more; wants to bring more federal research and development funds to district.

Gay marriage: Opposed constitutional amendment defining marriage as union of man and woman; supports civil unions, domestic partner benefits.