Maine GOP State Committee member Steven Scharf reports on the As Maine Goes forum that Charlie Webster and Charlie Summers have been elected as Chair and Vice Chair of the Maine Republican Party.
Webster is a former state senate minority leader and Summers ran for Congress in Maine's first district in 2004 and 2008.
The results are in:
President: Obama 62%, McCain 34%
US Senate: Collins 58%, Allen 41%
CD1: Summers 51%, Pingree 49%
CD2: Michaud 63%, Frary 37%
Question 1: Yes 53%, No 47%
Question 2: Yes 45%, No 55%
Question 3: Yes 58%, No 42%
No, Diebold hasn't malfunctioned and released the results early, those are the totals from the 2008 Maine Student Mock Election. I hope the Summers fans didn't get too excited.
It appears that Charlie Summers' closing argument in the CD1 race will be an attack on Pingree's tax policies.
Should make today's debate a bit more interesting. Tune in here at noon to watch live.
Charlie Summers has his first TV ad of the general election up on his website today. It's a bio spot, but also criticizes the bailout bill.
"Politicians give Wall Street nearly a trillion dollars, while we work hard and play by the rules just to make ends meet," says Summers in the ad.
Both Summers and Pingree have opposed the bailout, even after it was revised and passed in both the House and Senate on bipartisan votes.
The ad was produced by Stevens Reed Curcio and Potholm, the same firm that created the notorious swift boat attack ads in 2004.
California Congressman Duncan Hunter will be campaigning for first district GOP candidate Charlie Summers tomorrow.
Hunter seems a strange choice for a candidate attempting to appeal to Maine's first district. He's definitely on what can be charitably be described as the rightward edge of his party, and recently ran for the Republican presidential nomination on a militantly anti-immigration platform. He came in last place in almost every contest.
He got some headlines during the campaign for his comments about using tactical nuclear weapons against Iran.
The Press Herald has also posted three clips from an interview with the first district congressional candidates. Here they discuss health care:
Click read more to see the other clips.
CD1 candidates Chellie Pingree and Charlie Summers squared off in a debate on "Sustainability in Maine" over the weekend. The Press Herald has some highlights. I haven't found full video of the debate, but here's a clip:
Hopefully the candidates were more well-spoken throughout the rest of the debate. In this clip Pingree makes up a word ("crisises") and Summers takes us on a Palinesque ramble.
WGME goes in search of Maine's forgotten first district congressional candidates:
This one doesn't need any comment.
Maine public relations specialist Dennis Bailey gives an interesting assessment of the McCain campaign's VP roll-out.
I wonder what he would think of Charlie Summer's PR wisdom in choosing to list Richard Nixon as one of his favorite politicians.
A group of 20 Maine environmental groups will be hosting the first joint forum of the general election in the 1st Congressional District.
The forum will be held on September 28 at USM and will focus on "global warming, alternative transportation, clean energy, land protection, wildlife habitat, water quality, reducing toxins and supporting Maine agriculture and fisheries."
