AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine Secretary of State Charlie Summers kicked off his campaign for U.S. Senate on Tuesday by emphasizing his military and small-business background and by borrowing words from the Republican standard-bearer Ronald Reagan.
When he ran for president in 1980, Reagan bemoaned the country’s lack of leadership and said “I cannot and will not stand by and see this great country destroy itself.”
Summers said he was 20 years old when Reagan delivered those words, but they stuck with him.
“Now 32 years later, America finds herself in an eerily similar set of circumstances,” Summers said from the State House welcome center with a group of more than a dozen state lawmakers standing beside him.
The Scarborough resident and two-time U.S. House candidate is one of six Republicans seeking the nomination to fill Olympia Snowe’s Senate seat this fall.
The others are William Schneider, Maine’s attorney general; Bruce Poliquin, the state treasurer and a 2010 gubernatorial candidate; Rick Bennett, former Maine Senate President; Debra Plowman, assistant Senate majority leader; and Scott D’Amboise, a former U.S. House candidate.
Four candidates are vying for the Democratic nomination: former Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, state Sen. Cynthia Dill, state Rep. Jon Hinck and Portland home builder Benjamin Pollard.
Independent candidate Angus King, a former two-term governor, also is in the race.
Summers touched on a number of familiar GOP talking points on Tuesday: opposition to Obamacare, the growing national debt, the need to explore for domestic oil and the need to reduce taxes.
Asked how he planned to separate himself from the other Republican candidates, Summers said he believes his personal and professional experience puts him ahead of the others.
Before he became secretary of state, Summers was the regional administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration. Prior to that, he served as state director for Snowe for more than a decade. He also is a U.S. Navy veteran who has tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan to his credit and served in the Maine Senate in the 1990s.
Among those who supported Summers on Tuesday was Rep. Heather Sirocki, R-Scarborough, who called him the best candidate to “hit the ground running.” Rep. Amy Volk, R-Scarborough, said Snowe’s legacy would be difficult for anyone to live up to — but said Summers is the one to do it.
Despite his impressive resume, Summers has never won a statewide election. He ran for Maine’s 1st Congressional District seat in 2004 and lost to the Democratic incumbent Tom Allen. In 2008, Summers lost to Chellie Pingree, a Democrat who has since been re-elected and will seek a third term this year.
Still, Summers said he’s focused on winning the seat held by his former boss and political mentor. If elected, he even plans to seek a seat on the Senate Armed Service Committee, on which Snowe has served.
Snowe said her main reason for stepping aside was because Washington, D.C., is broken and increasingly incapable of compromise. Summers agreed with the first part but not the second.
“I think you have that responsibility [to compromise],” he said. “You have a responsibility to develop relationships. I think politics is a lot like small business: It’s all about relationships.”
Summers also sidestepped any perception of conflict about running for the Senate while serving as the state’s top elections official. Although nothing in state law requires him to step aside, he said he has taken steps already to turn over all election-related duties to his deputy, Julie Flynn.
Go Charlie, go and keep on going till you’re gone.
Do we get back a cut of his pay today? He did promise to run on his own time.
Charlie webster says he’s already won…. both the primary and general election and is our US Senator.
“Summers touched on a number of familiar GOP talking points on Tuesday: opposition to Obamacare, the growing national debt, the need to explore for domestic oil and the need to reduce taxes.”
Translation–Summers, like most of the GOP, supports plutocracy, corporate welfare, pollution, and exacerbating our fiscal inequality–already the worst on the planet.
Talk about straw man arguments! You take the cake! Drilling our own oil = pollution? Really? I like to think drilling our own oil = the end of wars in the middle east!
All your other comparisons are similarly weak. Please lay out your explanation of how wanting to reduce the national debt leads us to plutocracy, corporate welfare or fiscal inequality please.
Then please provide proof of your vapid claims.
WE HAVE NO OIL! When will you people realize that. The US Gov’t sells oil leases to international oil companies, who then drill and extract the oil. The oil is then refined at refineries located in the US, but belonging to international companies. Once it is refined, the product (still wholly owned by the international company)goes on the open market, you remember the market right? And it is sold to the highest bidder, so if the Chinese are willing to pay more, guess what? That product is going to China. International companies EXPORTED more refined product out of the US than we imported last year.
Now MOST of the worlds oil producing nations do own some of their oil: Staoil=Norway, Petrobras=Brazil, Gazprom=Russia, Saudi Aramco= Saudi Arabia. , etc. etc.
But if someone where to recommend a National oil company in the US, why that would be tanatamount to SOCIALISM!
The first graph in this link shows the correlation between wealth distribution and life expectancy. There are other factors involved but the correlation is devastating–more equal wealth distribution= longer life/less equal wealth distribution=shorter life.
http://www.annualreviews.org/eprint/iESYF775U2MwVfrxfAR2/full/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031811-124649
This link to the latest Forbes(not a librul rag btw) shows the extent of the maldistribution and quantifies it in fairly simple terms. If Forbes says it is this bad, you can bet it is actually worse.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/moneywisewomen/2012/03/21/average-america-vs-the-one-percent/
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that the scarcer natural resources become, the harder we have to work to extract them and the harder we have to work to extract them, the more dangerous said extraction becomes. Exhibit A: Deepwater Horizon.
As for your claim of my vapidity. I generally do not respond when personal attacks are used but feel it is important that you understand, Charlie Summers represents the status quo. If you are content with the way things are in Washington, then by all means vote for him because you will get more of the same.
You forgot, voter fraud , too!
Whoa! We dodged a bullet there. Thank goodness Julie Flynn will be taking over his duties. For a moment there I thought we were going to take the pressure off teenage drivers and pretending that there is widespread voter fraud in Maine.
That was his campaign preparation tour!
Charlie Summers is an excellent candidate for the US Senate. Lets take a second to look at his resume.
Experienced State Senator
Former head of the Small Business Bureau for New England
Navy Reserve Commander who saw combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Devoted father and husband
This guy is the real deal. The people of Maine are lucky to have such a stand up character on the ballot to replace Senator Snowe. Senator Snowe leaves behind a tremendous legacy and I believe Charlie Summers is the man to follow in her footsteps.
You forgot his private sector work experience as a department store mannequin and Fonzie impersonator, … hey.
if the only thing you can criticize secretary summers on is his looks then he must be a good candidate.
Don’t worry, there’s plenty more than that woody.
Let’s start with his blatant attempt to restrict voter access to the polls under the guise of voter fraud that is non existent.
Criticising his looks with jokes at least gets laughs!
His policies will make you cry!
Secretary Summers definitely has an extensive background. I truly love Senator Snowe and was devastated when I learned she was no longer running. I do take comfort in the idea that Secretary Summers worked for Olympia for more than ten years! He obviously has learned from one of the greatest politicians of our time and I have full faith in his ability to help fix this partisan divide we have in Washington DC.
To bad he is Republican.
Poor judgement on that one.
What planet have you been living on for the last year or so? He is nothing but a puppet of ALEC and if you think he will be working for Maine people you are wrong.
Oh please dear Lord, Let the Republican Senatorial Debates be televised. I bet they could be the top rated comedy of the summer.
I wonder how many voter ID challenge’s his people are gonna make if he lose’s ? Charlie’s constant Voter Registration chanting is about to come back to haunt him and it’s only gonna’ get worse, and louder, as the election get’s closer. Add his constant Tea Party leaning’s and this one is all but set in concrete. The only question now is how far is the State GOP gonna’ go before they figure out that any right-wing, no matter how well dressed, extremeist is going to more damage than good. Only time, and the voter’s common sense, will tell.
What am I missing? He can campaign plus allocate election-related duties to his deputy, on our dime?
State employees earn about 1 vacation dat per month worked and Charlie Summers has only been SOS for about 15 months.
He claimed he would only campaign on weekends and evenings unless he took vacation time.
I hope somebody watches him very carefully to assure he keeps his word on this.
We dont want you Charlie!
You tried to supress voters!
You have my vote Charlie
None of the others have your background in small business
None of the others oppose ObumaCare as much as he does
None of the others have the stones to stand up against the green lobby
Maine needs small business representation, not the same old liberal history of nothing
Considering governor and senator are the only statewide offices in Maine, its kind of strange to point out that Charlie has never won a statewide office. neither have any of the Republicans, or Democrats.
I notice he did this on company time. what about his promise to keep campaigning separate from his SOS duties?
Secretary Summers is a serious man for serious times. He does not shy away from tackling tough issues, like voter fraud, regulatory overkill, and teen driver safety.
He is absolutely correct when he declares that the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” aka Obama-Pelosi-Reidcare, is unconstitutional, and also correct when he says Obama’s bugging out of Iraq so precipitously was irresponsible.
For all you maroons who wish to hide under the covers and pretend that serious voter registration probelsm don’t exist, let me entice you to read this article from your favorite fishwrap of record, the NY Times:
Voter Rolls Are Rife With Inaccuracies, Report Finds
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/14/us/politics/us-voter-registration-rolls-are-in-disarray-pew-report-finds.html
The nation’s voter registration rolls are in disarray, according to a report released Tuesday by the Pew Center on the States. The problems have the potential to affect the outcomes of local, state and federal elections. One in eight active registrations is invalid or inaccurate. At the same time, one in four people who are eligible to vote — at least 51 million potential voters — are not registered. The report found that there are about 1.8 million dead people listed as active voters. Some 2.8 million people have active registrations in more than one state. And 12 million registrations have errors serious enough to make it unlikely that mailings based on them will reach voters…
By serious issues, do you mean imaginary issues?
Why don’t you ask the highly regarded Pew Center?
http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/
The Pew Center on the States (PCS) works to advance state policies that serve the public interest. PCS conducts credible research, brings together diverse perspectives, and analyzes states’ experiences to determine what works and what does not. We work with a wide variety of partners to identify and advance nonpartisan, pragmatic solutions for pressing problems affecting Americans.PCS operates major initiatives in corrections and public safety, children’s dental health, voluntary home visiting, elections, states’ fiscal health, and government performance. PCS has also partnered with other Pew projects in areas such as climate change, foster care reform and pandemic flu preparedness.
I was asking you. You really think voter fraud is an issue? Why couldn’t they find evidence of it, if so?
There is something about this guy Chuckles Summers that tells me he is not fit for the office he holds much less the office of Senator. Oh yeah it is the voter frauuuuuuuuuuuud thingy. He and the other Chuckles Webster couldn’t validate. ROFL!
If Amy Volk is for it, I’m against it
Sounds like a pathetic start to a campaign. Doom and gloom. Yeah, okay, but what are you going to do about it?