Brennan eyes House seat if Allen takes on Collins

PORTLAND – Former state Senate Majority Leader Michael Brennan, D-Portland, has announced he is considering a bid for the 1st Congressional District seat now held by Democrat Tom Allen.

Brennan is banking on Allen leaving his seat after six terms to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins in 2008. But rather than wait for that decision to be made, Brennan wants to get the ball rolling on his campaign, he said Friday.

“Clearly, he’s giving it a lot of thought,” Brennan said of Allen, with whom he communicated in the days before making his announcement. Brennan expects the incumbent to decide by May or June whether to take on Collins.

Allen’s spokesman, Mark Sullivan, said Friday the congressman will consider a Senate bid.

“Tom has said he is very seriously considering running for the Senate. But right now, he’s focusing on what’s going on in the House,” where Democrats are in the majority for the first time since Allen was elected.

Kevin Kelly, a spokesman for Collins, said Friday the two-term incumbent “has every intention of running for the Senate in 2008.”

Brennan has formed an exploratory committee and is beginning to work on the framework of a campaign organization.

If Allen runs for the Senate, Brennan noted, it would mark the first time in 12 years the seat would be open. Since the district is large, preparing for a campaign takes time, he explained.

Between now and the spring, Brennan plans on “meeting as many people as I can.”

Brennan served in the Maine House of Representatives from 1992 to 2000 and was chairman of the Education Committee. In March 2002 he won a special election to fill the Senate seat left vacant when incumbent Joel Abromson died. Brennan then won in the regular election in November and won re-election in 2004.

In 2005 and 2006, he served as Senate majority leader.

Brennan currently works as a policy associate at the Muskie School of Public Service in Portland and is an adjunct faculty member at the University of New England in Biddeford. He earned master’s degrees in social work from UNE and in public policy from the Muskie School. Brennan also is a licensed clinical social worker.

Born in Portland, his family moved to Georgia and Florida, where he completed his undergraduate degree, and then he returned to Maine, where he has lived for 31 years.

Though he shares a last name with a Democratic Party legend, Brennan said he is not related to Joe Brennan, at least “not that we’re agreed upon,” though there may be some family ties.

Brennan said his views are similar to Allen’s – ending the war in Iraq, improving education and addressing the cost of health care.

If Allen seeks the Senate seat, some of the possible Republican candidates Brennan might face in November 2008 include Darlene Curley, who ran against Allen last year; Charlie Summers, who ran for the seat in 2004; and former state Sen. Phil Harriman.

A Survey USA poll conducted late last year put Collins’ favorability rating at 73 percent. But if Allen opposes her, she may face questions about a pledge she made early in her career to serve just two terms.

Spokesman Kelly said Collins made the pledge during a debate in 1996, but since then, has found that seniority in the Senate matters, and the stature she has earned there is valued by Mainers.

Sullivan said Brennan has been “a good friend” to Allen, and the incumbent does not see the announcement as an attempt to nudge Allen toward a decision.