First in a series

When Rep. Tom Allen, a Democrat, decided to mount a challenge against incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins after having served more than a decade in Congress, six candidates jumped at the opportunity to fill his open seat in Maine’s 1st District.

Of the six Democrats running in the June 10 primary, four have extensive experience in the Legislature and name recognition throughout the district. Of the other two, one is a well-known Portland lawyer and Iraq war veteran while the other is a respected Portland pediatrician, who also served in the military.

The district was a Republican stronghold in the 1970s and 1980s but, except for a two-year break when James Longley Jr. won as part of Newt Gingrich’s Contract With America takeover of Congress in 1994, has become staunchly Democratic.

With the district’s liberal leanings, the campaign has drawn attention nationally, and more than $3 million in contributions have poured into the Democratic candidates’ coffers.

Although the 1st Congressional District stretches from the New Hampshire border to Augusta and coastal Knox, Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties, much of the campaign’s activity has centered on the southern Maine population centers in York and Cumberland counties. There have been numerous televised and radio debates in the Portland area and candidate forums throughout that part of the district. All of the candidates have a bank of volunteers pounding the precincts on their behalf.

Leading the money race, and ranked by most pundits as the front-runner, is the only woman in the race, Chellie Pingree, 53, of North Haven. She has operated businesses on the island for more than two decades, served eight years in the Maine Senate, mounted a hard-fought though unsuccessful run against Collins in 2002, and most recently served as president and chief executive officer of the Washington, D.C., advocacy group Common Cause. As of the most recent reporting deadline, Pingree had raised more than $1.1 million for her campaign.

State Sen. Ethan Strimling, 40, of Portland has raised more than $500,000 for his campaign. Strimling has lived in New York City, California and Maine, where he attended the University of Maine in Orono. A strong advocate for liberal issues, Strimling has been involved with the Maine People’s Alliance and has served as executive director of Portland West for the past decade. Portland West works with Maine children trying to move beyond poverty, children of immigrants and young people at risk. He is a three-term state senator from Portland.

Right behind Strimling in the money race is political newcomer Adam Cote, 35, of Sanford. Cote has reported $465,000 in contributions, a number of which came from Republican donors, and he is viewed by many as the more moderate candidate. Speculation is that Cote could emerge from the primary if all the more liberal candidates split the vote. Cote changed his registration from Democrat to Republican in 2000 to vote for John McCain and changed back last year shortly before filing his nomination papers.

Cote is a graduate of Colby College and is a lawyer with the Portland firm Pierce-Atwood. He also serves as a staff judge advocate for the Maine Army National Guard. He spent a year serving with the Army in Iraq and was present in the mess hall when a suicide bomb attack killed and wounded more than 100 soldiers. While in Iraq he spearheaded the “Adopt an Iraqi Village” program, which distributes school and other supplies.

York County District Attorney Mark Lawrence, 49, of Kittery has reported contributions of $416,000. The son of a Portsmouth Naval Shipyard worker, Lawrence worked his way through Bowdoin College and the University of Maine School of Law as a lobsterman and in local factories. He was elected to the Maine House of Representatives in 1988, becoming the first Democrat to hold the Kittery seat since the Civil War. He repeated his upset of a popular Republican incumbent when he was elected to the Maine Senate in 1992. He served two terms as Senate president and waged an unsuccessful campaign against U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe in 2000. A longtime advocate for working families, Lawrence has been district attorney since 2003.

State Sen. Michael Brennan, 55, of Portland has raised $211,000 in contributions. A Portland native, Brennan is a licensed clinical social worker and works as a policy associate at the Muskie School of Public Service, where he directs projects related to child welfare, substance abuse, mental health and public policy. He also is an adjunct faculty member at the University of New England. Brennan represented Portland in the Maine House of Representatives from 1992 to 2000 and then was elected to the state Senate, where he just completed his fourth term.

Another veteran and political newcomer, and the only physician in the race, is pediatrician Steve Meister, 53, of Portland. Meister has raised $88,000 in campaign contributions. He earned his medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine and has been a staff physician at Maine Medical Center since 1996. Before that, Meister served as a clinical professor at Georgetown University’s department of pediatrics in Washington, D.C., and as the head of pediatric care and director of child abuse evaluation at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, Calif. He has published a number of papers and is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Meister served with the U.S. Marines during the first Gulf War, directing an emergency room at a field hospital at the Kuwait border.

Progressive candidates

All of the candidates define themselves as progressives and have few differences over the major issues of the day. During their stops on the campaign trail the six candidates have met with Mainers from all walks of life and have discussed the issues that concern them the most. Topping the list is health care, rising fuel costs, the state of the nation’s economy and the war in Iraq. During a recent debate on WGAN radio in Portland, the candidates described their positions on each of those issues.

Brennan, Lawrence, Pingree and Strimling each said they favored adoption of a national health care plan with a single payer. While Cote and Meister agreed on the need for universal access to care, both men opposed having the government as the single payer. The candidates also described themselves as pro-choice.

On the war in Iraq, Pingree stated that she believed the troops should be extracted immediately and that she would vote to cut off funding for the war if they were not.

“I support a reasonable plan to leave Iraq,” she said. “I’m someone who believes that we need to begin to bring the troops home right away and get them all back here in a fast, but orderly, fashion. If the administration refuses to make plans for immediate withdrawal, Congress must stop funding this war and rescind its authorization.”

Lawrence said he was opposed to the war from the beginning and would be prepared to cut funding if elected.

“I would vote to de-fund the war and would support a resolution to end the war now,” he said.

Meister described the war as an “economic and humanitarian disaster” and said that while he would like to see it come to an end, he could not in good conscience support an immediate withdrawal.

“We cannot pull out now,” he said. “We have a responsibility to leave the region in peace.”

Brennan said he had asked the state’s congressional delegation to oppose the war from the onset and has always been in favor of bringing the troops home.

“The best thing we can do for the Iraqi people and Iraq is to withdraw,” he said. “I support the withdrawal of the troops and would not vote for funding.”

Strimling also said he opposed the war from the start. He said it was long past time for America to have an effective policy in Iraq and that the troops should be removed immediately.

“We need to stand up as Democrats and say, ‘No more of this.’ This war needs to end.”

Cote, who served a year in Iraq, said that while there wasn’t “a person in this race that isn’t more committed to ending the war in Iraq,” it is imperative to have an orderly plan to extract the troops. He said it was misguided to think funding could be cut, the troops brought home and the country could pretend the war never happened.

“We can’t be as reckless getting out as we were getting in,” he said.

On the slumping economy and rising gas prices, the candidates said they favored greater investments in energy conservation and alternative forms of energy. They also supported enactment of windfall profit taxes on the oil companies, which have reported record profits while Maine families continue to struggle with heating their homes and running their vehicles.

“We are in a terrible mess in this country and a lot of things need to happen,” Pingree said. “It’s a matter of getting our priorities straight. We should end the war and stop spending $400 million a day in Iraq, repeal the billions of dollars in subsidies the oil companies are pocketing.”

Brennan described the Bush administration’s tax cuts as a “disaster” and said he believed they should be allowed to expire. As for the stimulus checks being sent to families across the country, Brennan said they were “exactly the wrong thing … to do” and suggested that the money could have been put to better use by investing in education and health care.

Strimling pointed out that “we need to revitalize our economy. The Bush administration and Congress [have], unfortunately, forgotten Maine people and people all over the country.” He added that one way to help workers at home would be to give unions greater freedom to organize.

“One of the issues in Maine is that our wages are too low and we’ve got to push them up,” he said. “We’ve got to let the unions organize.”

Cote said that if he were elected, he would pressure his colleagues to eliminate the many earmarks that have become so popular in recent years. He said providing funds for necessary things was part of the role of Congress but that pork barrel projects needed to be removed.

“I think the most important thing is to have transparency. People can sneak these things in,” Cote said. “It is the obligation of Congress to try and focus on bringing economic development to the state. I would not call that pork.”

Meister said the health care system was designed to treat acute illnesses and the country had to find ways to provide insurance coverage that was “portable and affordable.” He said all children should receive free preventive health coverage from birth to age 18.

Lawrence said working families were in need of help and predicted that things would get worse unless changes were made in Washington.

“I’ve said that America’s middle class and working families have been nickel-and-dimed by this administration, but the truth is far worse. Their tax structure has created a wealth shift from the middle class to the wealthy and corporations,” he said.

wgriffin@bangordailynews.net

338-9546

Coming next: 1st District Republican candidates.