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Sunday, September 5, 2004
Much-altered 1st District puts focus on taxes, health care
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The social, political and economic landscape of Maine's 1st Congressional District has changed a lot in the last 20 years. And it is here that, between now and Nov. 2, Democratic Rep. Tom Allen and Republican challenger Charlie Summers will stump their way through the most populated, southwestern corner of the state, which consists of York, Cumberland, Sagadahoc, Lincoln, Knox and most of Kennebec counties. Gone are Rockland's canneries, replaced by credit-card giant MBNA, upscale restaurants and trendy shops. Portland schools now teach more than 50 languages, due to an influx of political refugees, and the city has made numerous national top-10 lists, including as a place where gay and lesbian couples choose to live. Urban sprawl has transformed farm towns like Buxton, Dayton, Lyman and Waterboro into bedroom communities. Populations there have more than tripled in recent decades, subdivisions have replaced furrowed fields and agriculture now represents less than 1 percent of the local economy. Former mill towns like Brunswick, Biddeford and Sanford troll for high-tech business development and wrestle with the benefits and drawbacks of big-box stores. Meanwhile, the 2000 Census tallied a 38 percent to 45 percent increase in median family income across the district during the previous decade. "From Kittery to Camden, there are a lot of people who have done very well in the last 20 or 30 years," said David Emery, a Republican who lives in Tenants Harbor and was the 1st District congressman in the 1970s. "Much of the essential Maine character has disappeared. . . . As with every change, there are pluses and minuses . . . (but) the essential challenges of the district haven't changed." Front-burner issues in the 1st District include tax reform, education funding, health care costs, job preservation, environmental protection and the social and economic pressures on service-center communities. These challenges may seem less acute than those of the sprawling, more rural 2nd Congressional District, which has been hard hit by job and population losses. Still, it will be Allen's task to remind 1st District voters what he's done during the last eight years and Summers' job to explain how he might do better. The district has 160,758 registered Democrats, 148,471 Republicans and 199,371 unenrolled voters, according to the secretary of state. Allen won the district from Republican incumbent Jim Longley with 57 percent of the vote, and he has beaten three challengers with 60 percent of the vote or more. "Tom Allen has been there (in Washington, D.C.), he knows what's going on and he's a hard worker," said Santo DiPietro, a Democrat who lives in South Portland, operates a neighborhood market there and was a state representative in the late 1980s and early 1990s. DiPietro lauded Allen's focus in trying to improve health care coverage for all people, and especially his leadership in the fight to preserve Medicare and provide prescription drug benefits for senior citizens. DiPietro said he also appreciates Allen's broader efforts in a Republican-controlled Congress, such as supporting a crackdown on coal-fired mercury emissions and price controls to subsidize Maine dairy farmers. Republicans say Summers - who was state senator for Scarborough, Saco, Old Orchard Beach and Dayton from 1991 to 1994 and a top staffer for Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe for the last nine years - has the best chance to beat Allen since Allen captured the seat. William Southwick, a Republican from Biddeford, sees Summers as a candidate who represents the Republican ideals of greater accountability and less government. He believes Maine could accomplish more if it had a congressman in the Republican majority. "It's important to see a change in representation," Southwick said. "Tom Allen is a noble man . . . (but) I would like to see a different philosophy brought into play." Summers' campaign hopes to capitalize on that desire for change. The challenger plans to cover the district with Main Street walks, business visits, in-home forums and debates with Allen in each county. Aggressive TV and radio ads will come later in the campaign. They will likely criticize Allen for siding with the Democratic leadership and promote Summers as an independent thinker. "Charlie isn't necessarily going to vote the way President Bush wants every single time," said Gregory Bishop, Summers' events coordinator. "He's going to do what's best for his district." With a Republican-dominated Congress, said Jacqueline Potter, Allen's chief of staff, it's important for voters to support Allen's philosophy of government, which is to be helpful rather than punitive. She noted that while Allen opposed giving Bush unilateral approval to go to war in Iraq, he supported spending to outfit U.S. troops. Potter acknowledged that, historically, district voters have fluctuated between Republicans and Democrats. Republican Peter Cianchette won York, Cumberland, Sagadahoc, Lincoln and Knox counties in the 2002 race against Gov. John Baldacci. Still, she is confident Allen will win again. "We're just going to keep doing what we've been doing," she said. Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at:
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