GOP race for Blaine House heating up

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AUGUSTA – With the most recent polls reflecting a persistent level of disapproval in the Baldacci administration, Republicans are becoming increasingly hopeful of reclaiming the Blaine House next year.

There’s also no shortage of potential GOP gubernatorial contenders as Sen. Chandler Woodcock of Farmington confirmed this week that he is testing support for his candidacy.

Should he decide to get into the race, Woodcock would join announced candidates Peter Cianchette of South Portland, state Rep. Peter Mills of Cornville, and Bangor businessman Stephen Stimpson in a four-way primary next June.

If some of the initial turbulence that has taken place is any indication, next year’s GOP primary could be a real bruiser.

The Maine GOP is a close family that usually tries to honor the Ronald Reagan 11th commandment of not speaking ill of fellow Republicans. But some members agreed this week to discuss what could become a growing rift in the party on the condition they not be identified.

One Republican, Sen. Debra D. Plowman of Hampden, said she was comfortable enough with the level of dissatisfaction within the party to put her statements on the record.

In general, she said, Republicans are unhappy with what they perceive as subtle attempts by the Cianchette campaign to win over party members and lock up support long before the June 2006 primary even arrives.

In particular, Plowman and others are incensed over GOP State Chairman Randy Bumps’ close association with Cianchette, a partnership that was solidified last year when both directed President Bush’s campaign in Maine. Later, Cianchette hired Bumps to work in his private sector firm, The Cianchette Group.

The employment link and what Republicans describe as the chairman’s staunch support of Cianchette behind the scenes has prompted some party members to question whether Bumps, a former staffer for Sen. Susan Collins, should remain in his post as state chairman, a voluntary position that does not include a salary.

While the dissent does not invoke images of a mob carrying pitchforks and torches chanting “Dump Bumps,” there apparently has been enough nastiness to prompt Bumps to – at least momentarily – consider resignation.

“He told me he was going to resign last Friday,” Mills said.

Plowman said she and other Republicans had heard the same rumor, but during a meeting of county Republican leaders last week, no resignation was announced.

When asked Thursday whether the party members could have misunderstood his intentions, Bumps replied, “Probably.”

For Plowman and others interviewed this week, it isn’t a question of “whether” Bumps should resign, but “when.”

“There’s the appearance that he’s waiting for an offer to join the (Cianchette) campaign,” she said. “There are things that can’t be substantiated, but the feeling is that party headquarters should be as if it were a non-partisan office of the Legislature for primary candidates. You should be able to go and share information with them without worrying about whether your information is going to be shared with another candidate. There’s no feeling of confidence among those who may be favoring one candidate over another that their candidate will get the kind of impartial and, if necessary, confidential treatment that they have every reason to expect to receive.”

Mills said he’s too busy campaigning to worry about whether Bumps remains chairman of the party or not, adding he had not asked him to step down.

“He can make his own choices,” Mills said. He also said he would not allow the issue to distract him from his mission.

Bumps said that though he is an employee of the Cianchette group, he has not heard of any incidents of bias extended to the South Portland businessman.

“The fact of the matter is that I intend to remain as chairman until such point that I feel it is no longer wise,” Bumps said. “I made it clear to Sen. Mills that he has access to every asset of the party and I’ve been very clear to the staff that they have a responsibility to respond to all of the potential and announced candidates equally. To my knowledge, they’ve done that in spades.”

Other Republicans said they had heard about some dissatisfaction with Bumps, but were either convinced that nothing was amiss or determined to make sure nothing would be.

“Any person who is running for governor should have equal access to anything that the party has to offer and that’s about all I’ve got to say about that,” said Senate GOP Leader Paul Davis of Sangerville.

State Rep. Kevin Glynn of South Portland defended Bumps whom he said was highly regarded within the party and a citizen with a distinguished community service record. Glynn said Republicans would be hard-pressed to find a better party chairman.

“He probably has one of the most open-door policies to candidates that I have seen,” Glynn said. “Will there be someone who feels as though another candidate has an upper edge? I don’t think that would ever prove out to be true because any candidate who walks in (to see Bumps) and asks for a voter list, donor list or help in general, always gets ‘yes’ for an answer.”

Rather than focus on issues that divide them in a primary season, Glynn contends Republicans should concentrate on the “big prize” of the governorship – an office that has eluded the GOP for the last 11 years.

Cianchette lost to Democrat John E. Baldacci by about 29,000 votes out of nearly 450,000 cast in the 2002 gubernatorial contest.

Baldacci faces no apparent challengers within his own party, and the only unenrolled or independent candidate to announce her intentions to date is Nancy Oden of Jonesboro.

A recent Maine Green Independent Party release to members also indicated that Pat LaMarche, who received 7 percent of the vote as that party’s 1998 gubernatorial nominee, would announce her 2006 candidacy for governor the Friday after Thanksgiving.

Green Party officials on Friday said the meeting minutes discussing the LaMarche announcement, while accurate, were not meant for widespread release. Furthermore, the party’s chairwoman, Heather “Betsy” Garrold, said, “Thanksgiving is a long way away, so I think you would have to say she’s still a maybe.”

LaMarche, reached later Friday, said she had not approved the minutes and remained undecided about a second run for the Blaine House.

Meanwhile, the GOP gubernatorial field is becoming more defined with Mills, Cianchette and Stimpson as definite candidates and Woodcock as a possible nominee.

Former state Sen. Rick Bennett of Norway has decided against staging a bid and Sen. Paul Davis’ interest in the job does not appear as keen as it once was according to supporters.

Glynn said the level of interest among Republicans in the governor’s post is directly related to recent polls which showed a majority of the respondents disapproved of Baldacci’s performance as governor.

On Tuesday, the SurveyUSA polling group released the results of the survey it took of 600 adults statewide for television stations WLBZ 2 in Bangor and WCSH 6 in Portland.

According to the poll, which has a margin of error of 4.1 percent, 56 percent of those questioned disapproved of Baldacci’s performance. That compares with a 55 percent disapproval rating in May by the same polling company, 57 percent disapproval in June, 55 percent in July and 54 percent in August.

However, as evidence that different polls can produce different results, Patrick Murphy of Strategic Marketing Services in Portland produced a poll indicating that Gov. Baldacci had a 53 percent favorability rating in July.

Still, Glynn was inclined to put more stock in the SurveyUSA poll which he said invigorated Republicans who perceive the governor as extremely vulnerable.

“The fact that we have a primary means there’s a tremendous amount of ground swell for the Republican Party to put up a quality candidate that can secure the Blaine House,” Glynn said. “There’s a very good reason why we have an extensive primary for this seat and that’s because there’s a general feeling among the electorate that John Baldacci has done a terrible job as governor and has let us down in so many ways ranging from the computer debacle in Medicaid to the expansion of state programs that never arrived with appropriate levels of funding.”

At Baldacci headquarters, all the speculation over a GOP victory in 2006 was perceived as somewhat premature, if not delusional. Lee Umphrey, a spokesman for the governor, said Republicans shouldn’t be relying on polls as the basis for Baldacci’s potential political demise.

“If you look at polling across the country, all governors’ poll numbers are down,” he said. “We have a war in Iraq, we have gas problems, we’re facing natural disasters and it’s not a good time for this country – so everybody’s poll numbers are down.”

Umphrey said Republicans fail to recall Baldacci came into office with “a billion dollar deficit” and has been forced to fight Washington for Maine’s share of resources.

“There’s no one in Maine who was better to fix the past or prepare for the future than John Baldacci,” Umphrey said.

NEWS reporter Jeff Tuttle contributed to this report.