Todd Benoit’s column in last weekend’s Bangor Daily News misunderstands my recent statements regarding George W. Bush, Chandler Woodcock and this fall’s gubernatorial election. Perhaps Benoit is correct that my statement was phrased clumsily and felt “off the shelf.” I can accept that and I take it as a challenge to be more precise in my statements over the coming months.

I also agree with Benoit that there are very important issues facing Maine. The question for voters over the next four months is, how do we want to tackle these problems?

The policies of the Bush administration are relevant to the discussion at hand. We know by example how John Baldacci will tackle the challenges facing Maine. He will work harder than anyone else and put in longer hours than anyone else to build bipartisan consensus around positive solutions. We know this because Baldacci has a record of doing just that.

Even his most ardent detractors would admit that he works extremely hard. This is something he has done his entire life. He learned it early at the Baltimore, the Baldacci family’s first restaurant, and he broke the traditional mold as a congressman when he returned to Maine every weekend to meet with constituents. Nobody works harder than John Baldacci.

Baldacci’s record of bipartisan achievement reflects this hard work. His first budget closed a $1.2 billion revenue gap without raising sales or income taxes. His bold leadership on health care has seen Maine become one of only seven states to realize an increase in the number of people with health insurance. His anti-discrimination law was ratified at the polls by a wide margin. All of these successes came with strong bipartisan support in the Legislature.

On the big issues, Baldacci has a mainstream approach that attracts support from Mainers of all political persuasions. What do we know about Chandler Woodcock’s approach? He was strikingly reluctant to say anything too specific during the GOP primary and he has been conspicuously absent since. In his only post-primary press conference he conspicuously dodged identifying himself a “conservative.” I certainly understand his dilemma. If Maine has ever elected a statewide official as conservative as Sen. Woodcock, it’s been quite some time since.

This is why George W. Bush is relevant to the discussion. If Woodcock fails to offer specifics on his agenda, or insists on reinventing himself now that the primary is over, we simply have no other model for conservative executive leadership other than that embodied by George W. Bush. From what we do know about Woodcock, the similarities on the issues between him and Bush are striking.

George W. Bush and his recent Supreme Court appointee, Samuel Alito, are alarmingly close to overturning Roe v. Wade. And Woodcock, who is stridently anti-choice as well, has said that he would craft a policy on abortion that reflects his position. Do Maine women want Chandler Woodcock protecting their privacy?

George W. Bush has specialized in cutting taxes for the wealthy while running up gigantic federal deficits. Woodcock has said he wants to conform Maine’s tax code to that which Bush has created at the federal level. Is that the sort of fiscal responsibility Maine needs?

Bush proposed slashing health care programs in the name of marketplace reforms and is still clinging to the blind hope that insurance companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers will provide affordable health care without direction from the government. Woodcock told Republican primary voters that he would remove regulations on the insurance industry that protect Maine consumers in the name of more marketplace reforms. Do Maine people trust that approach?

Bush will not be on the ballot this fall, but when you look at the few positions Chandler Woodcock has laid out, you can see that there is more than just a passing resemblance between them. It is important and fair to draw this comparison because the policies of Bush are tangible to Maine people. By illustrating how the two men share conservative ideologies, Maine people will appreciate the different approaches to governing that the Democratic Party brings.

Maine people will have a clear choice for governor in November and it is my duty to illustrate for all Maine voters, not just Democrats, a clear picture of what is at stake. In the end, I think they will agree, Chandler Woodcock is too conservative for Maine.

Ben Dudley is chairman of the Maine Democratic Party.