AG Rowe seen as Snowe opponent

AUGUSTA – Could it really be Snowe vs. Rowe in 2006?

Maine Attorney General G. Steven Rowe wasn’t ruling out a run for the U.S. Senate after he was featured Tuesday in Roll Call, a Washington, D.C., newspaper that covers the political scene on Capitol Hill.

Rowe was mentioned along with Maine 1st District Rep. Tom Allen as a potential opponent against Republican U.S. Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, who is seeking a third term in office. Jean Hay Bright, a Dixmont organic farmer who failed to win the Democratic Senate nomination in 1996, has also announced her intention to form an exploratory committee for a run against Snowe.

Rowe, who was in Washington, D.C., for a meeting of state attorneys general, was unavailable for comment Tuesday. The Roll Call article cited an unnamed “Democratic operative” as the source of the information concerning Allen’s and Rowe’s future plans. Allen spokesman, Mark Sullivan, dismissed the potential challenge as speculative, insisting Allen is “focused on the 109th Congress.”

Rowe, however, was less vague.

“I’ve been asked to consider running for higher office by a number of people; as of today, I have not ruled anything out,” the 51-year-old told the reporter from Roll Call.

Still, Rowe’s name was making the rounds Tuesday at the State House where some Democratic lawmakers said they had heard that an announcement confirming Rowe’s candidacy was “imminent.”

Not so, according to Chuck Dow, Rowe’s communications director at the Attorney General’s Office who said no plans for an announcement were in the works and that his boss was only leaving the door open to future opportunities in his Roll Call interview.

“All he said was that he’s not ruling anything out,” Dow said. “We’re not being coy. The way he put it is exactly the way that it’s happened.”

Snowe, who has been in Congress since 1978, was apparently not taking anything for granted. Ted O’Meara, Snowe’s state campaign chairman, said the senator has “worked hard for the people of Maine” and had every intention of remaining on the job.

“She’s going to be running a strong campaign as she always has in the past and she looks forward to debating the issues with whoever the Democratic nominee is,” O’Meara said. “She has never taken any campaign for granted.”

Rowe was sworn in as Maine’s 54th attorney general on Jan. 5, 2001. He served four terms in the Maine House of Representatives from 1992 to 2000, including as speaker in his last term.