LEWISTON – Former Secretary of Defense Bill Cohen returned to his home state Friday to stump for his former aide, congressional candidate Tim Woodcock, at a morning reception at the Ramada Inn.

“He doesn’t have to learn on the job,” Cohen told 30 or so Woodcock supporters in the hotel’s Ritz Room, decorated in the green, blue and white colors of the campaign. “He comes fully prepared the day he starts to carry out the responsibilities.”

At the Lewiston event, Cohen praised Woodcock, a Bangor attorney and former mayor of that city, for his work as a member of the then-U.S. senator’s staff on issues including the 1978 Indian Land Claims case and an investigator in the Iran-Contra hearings a few years later.

The high-profile endorsement of such a popular Maine politician in the waning weeks of the campaign was designed to make a mark in the four-way Republican primary. In that race Woodcock faces Kevin Raye, the former chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe; state Rep. Stavros Mendros of Lewiston; and former state Rep. Richard Campbell of Holden, the party’s 2000 nominee.

While Woodcock’s home base of Bangor has often thought to be more critical in a Republican primary, he said he was also looking to build a base in Lewiston, which despite being a Democratic stronghold was kind to Cohen during his time in office.

Woodcock said he hoped the Cohen connection would make voters in the western part of the district give him a serious look.

“I think that when they see somebody the caliber of Bill Cohen point to somebody and say they can do the job, people will listen to my message,” Woodcock said later at Simones’ Hot Dog Stand, a downtown landmark and a traditional stop for politicians looking for lunch – and votes – in the city. “That’s all I ask.”

But, in some sense, Lewiston is still hostile territory for any Bangor Republican.

Mendros, who represents part of the city in Augusta, became the first Republican in nearly 100 years to win the seat – and was re-elected by a slightly wider margin two years later.

Snowe, Raye’s longtime boss, is from neighboring Auburn and has proved popular in her own right, never losing a race since first elected to congress in 1978.

Snowe also worked for Cohen at one point, as did U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and former Maine Gov. John McKernan.

Cohen said Friday that Woodcock should be the next from the “family” to hold public office.

“There could not be a finer candidate,” he said.

Cohen’s Lewiston stop came about a week after he and former U.S. Sen. Warren Rudman, R-New Hampshire, appeared at a Washington fund raiser, which by itself raised $15,000 for Woodcock, according to his aide.