As noted by PTP yesterday, Republican sources confirm that Steve Abbott, Senator Susan Collins’ Chief of Staff, will be announcing his candidacy for governor next Tuesday. Like Pat McGowan, he plans to announce in whistle-stop tour fashion, with stops in Portland, Orono, and Presque Isle.
Although Abbott has never himself held or run for office before, his extensive experience in government and politics will make him formidable. He is well-known and well-liked by Republican activists of all stripes statewide. While there’s still no frontrunner, he starts off in a stronger position than any of the other candidates have – which is why he can afford to start later.
As with McGowan, Abbott’s announcement tour highlights his diverse background: He has lived in Portland in recent years and has family ties to northern Maine. Indeed, Abbott is the only Republican candidate with any noteworthy connections to northern Maine, which could serve him well. In a primary anytime you have an “in” with a voter demographic that nobody else has, it can be a huge advantage.
Abbott also has the most experience with fractured, competitive Republican primaries, as they have been common in Susan Collins’ career. She won a very competitive primary to first run for the U.S. Senate, and her nomination as the GOP gubernatorial candidate in 1994 was even more competitive. Indeed, we have used that race as an example in our analysis of this year’s gubernatorial election.
He will have to work hard to acquaint himself with the everyday voter, in both the primary and (if he wins the nomination) the general election. This could be where his lack of previous experience as a candidate could hurt him. However, even those gubernatorial candidates who have run before for high office don’t have especially high name recognition, and whomever emerges from the Democratic primary will have to do the same. This is not 2002, when Republicans were running against a well-known Congressman.
He’ll also have to immediately begin raising a lot of money, especially since he is running against two millionaires, but he has extensive experience in that area. He was able to raise an enormous amount of money for Collins’ re-election in the middle of a recession (both for the economy and the Republican Party). Unlike some of the other candidates with no experience fundraising for a statewide race, there is little chance that fundraising could sink Abbott’s candidacy.
None of the other Republican candidates are likely to leave the race simply because he enters, but his entrance may cause some re-evaluation. Though untested as a candidate himself, Abbott’s experience immediately makes him a serious candidate. He’ll have to prove himself on the campaign trail, but he doesn’t face the disadvantages of many of the first-time candidates looking to move into the Blaine House.
That's ridiculous. Steve Abbott has been involved in Maine politics since before Bruce knew where the Blaine House was. Almost every candidate has been to Aroostook County multiple times.
Being a real estate developer doesn't qualify you to be Governor; being experienced in government and politics does. Bruce would be well advised to run for the State Senate and actually learn something about government before he tries for high office; the same goes for Les Otten and Rosa Scarcelli.
Never running for office before and deciding to run for governor is a little ridiculous; it's like never playing basketball and declaring for the NBA Draft. The last thing this state needs right now is a political neophyte.
Interesting you stated that being experienced in government and politics counts. Well all the ones currently experienced in government have put this state on the brink of bankruptcy. All that experience has cost us business loss, population decline, bigger government and one of the most expensive entitlement programs in the country. Yeah lets keeping voting those with experience backin.
Wow, I never knew that a U.S. Senator's Chief of Staff was responsible for state policy. I always thought it was the Governor and the Legislature, which is all led by Democrats. If Steve's been secretly running the state for years, as you attest, why bother running for Governor at all, one wonders?
I also never knew that all elected officials were exactly alike. That makes it so much easier. It also means that if Bruce won, you'd have to vote against him in four years, since by then he'd have experience in government and therefore be evil.
Marcus,
I think it's pretty obvious Poliquin has a handle on the direction Maine's government needs to take. This is not the year for the GOP to nominate a career political person. Political insiders in Maine might want that, but it's overwhelmingly clear that Mainers and people around the country do not. The disconnect between politicians and the people is enormous right now, and however nice a guy he may be, Abbott, because he's a career political person, is just more of the same.
Mr.Abbotts experience in Sen. Collin's office may be good in Washington but this is Maine. Mr. Abbott better
be able to raise alot of money in a short period of time. Washington doners can only donate $750 each also!
He will not get out of the starting gate. He should of kept his gravy government job!
That's so idiotic and childish. I might as well say that since some real estate developers are jerks Bruce is too. You have to judge people on their individual merits, not based on their job. The last time Maine had a novice governor was Angus King, and he drove the state into the fiscal ruin we face today. We also have a political novice as President right now. How's he doing? Seems to me like Bruce – like Les and Obama – is running a campaign promising change without much substance or knowledge about state policy.
Hey, here's an idea, Garrett: why don't you leave the gubernatorial race to those of us who care enough about Maine to still live here?
Let me ask you Marcus; are you better off today then you were 10 years ago as it relates to your personal wealth and well-being as a resident of Maine? I would say no. Do not blame Angus, blame the tax and spend liberals that have been in control of Augusta for 30 years. The Poliquin Campaign just finished up a event in Lyman, Maine and like it or not change is in the air. How can we possibly continue on this path especially with career politicians and Abbott has to be put into that catagory. By the way who are you supporting for governor?
I do blame tax and spend liberals. That's why I blame Angus. Anyone who doesn't think Angus was a tax-and-spend big-government liberal clearly knows nothing about Maine politics.
How can we possibly elect another person with no experience in government who makes promises and then goes back on them? So what, now you're saying going to Lyman qualifies you to be governor? You really don't understand campaigns. Nobody cares how hard the campaign works or where they've been. People care about how they feel about the issues and their experience, not about their campaigning skills that have been honed by expensive out-of-state consultants.
Why should I trust someone to be governor of Maine when he doesn't even trust Mainers to run his campaign?
Marcus you keep missing the point! Career "experienced" Democrats have gotten us to this point not business professionals. Businesses are not the enemy, out of control government is. Do you think the business professionals at LL Bean or Cianbro or Bath Iron Works recklessly spend their money? They would be out of buisness if they did. What Democratic controlled Legislators do is cut a bunch low paying state jobs to fix their budgets but never correct the root problems. This is because they have to protect their appointed positions, thus the life cycle of a career politician.
You haven't answered my question. Who are you supporting. Let's do a comparison, yours vs mine.
I'm having a discussion with you. I'm not supporting anyone; I'm playing devil's advocate. Take a deep breath and count backwards from ten. The biggest problem with the phrase "Career 'experienced' Democrats" isn't 'career' or 'experienced'. It's 'Democrats'.
We're talking about Steve Abbott, not Libby Mitchell. Angus King was functionally equivalent to legislative Democrats – he was a liberal Democrat in Independent clothing. People talked about him the same way you're talking about Bruce – that he'd be able to fix the state because he was a businessman, not a career politician.
If this is still part of your argument against Abbott, I'd remind you that the leaders of Cianbro are supporting him. Apparently they don't consider him part of that problem, so maybe you should call them and ask them about Steve.
How'd that work out for us?
Now that I've answered your question, how about you answer mine about Bruce's legion of out-of-state consultants?
I would be glad to answer your question:
Running a campaign is like running a business, Bruce is a business person. In order for any business to be succesful you have to have the proper management team in place. It is comprised of a leader, Bruce, financial managers, marketing managers and rank and file employees (staff). Now, that team must be made up of the best talent you can find to do the job and be successful. In this case not all the talent you need is available in Maine. Remember, most of his very qualified staff are Maine natives that bring a tremendous amount of energy and expertise to the campaign. Like all business decisions some talent must be imported from away in order to accomplish the goals of the business (campaign). This is what Bruce has done. That was easy, ask me a hard question. By the way Marcus I am enjoying this.
That's clearly false. All of the talent is available in Maine. Bruce didn't need to hire a single out-of-state person. Bruce just doesn't care enough – or know enough – to hire Mainers.
I've spoken to the Poliquin staff; they thought TABOR was going to win by a landslide, which was why they lashed Bruce to it. Clearly their understanding of Maine politics is minimal. There are brighter, more talented people available with a better grasp of Maine politics available..
Most of his staff are out-of-state consultants, actually. I've met them. His fundraising is being handled by a Vermont firm; his communications director is from away; who exactly has he hired from Maine? Name names, please.
I'll answer that Marcus, I know for a fact that the vast majority of Poliquin's staffers are Mainers. Does he have one or two out of state pros? Sure. In case you haven't noticed, Republicans in Maine haven't exactly excelled at winning elections the past 30 years (Snowe and Collins staff excluded, although at this point many of them are just as much DC residents as Maine residents).
I responded to your question just to put this issue to rest, but its pretty ridiculous that where Bruce's staff are from is even being discussed in a race where several CANDIDATES aren't even from Maine (Jacobson, Otten, Mitchell). Even if your allegation was true, its just inside baseball that voters don't care about.
Who managed her campaign? A MAINER!
Again, having one consultant work on the campaign is not an issue. The issue is that the majority of Bruce's staffers seem to be freelancing out-of-state consultants, including his senior staff.
See my reply above, it got a bit buried in all the activity but you are absolutely wrong about the "majority" of Bruce's staffers being out of state. If as you say having one or two consultants is no issue, than you shouldn't have a problem with Poliquin.
Snowe's and Collins' staff are more Mainers than Bruce's staff. I'm not going to vote for any of the candidates from anywhere else either.
Simply because they have not recently had a Governor or a Congressman doesn't mean that Maine Republicans have been total failures over the past thirty years, or that every Republican in Maine is a moron. The Legislature was tied as recently as 2004; Kevin Raye nearly defeated Mike Michaud in 2002; and no statewide Democratic candidate has received greater than 50% of the vote since Governor Brennan last ran for office. That sounds pretty good in my book.
But then, what do I know, I only live here.
So do I, and so does 80% of Bruce's staff. I never meant to say there weren't good people in Maine, obviously there are and Bruce and several other candidates have hired them. What I am saying is there aren't a whole lot of them.
And may I repeat the inside baseball comment. This is the kind of BS that is promulgated by people trying to distract voters from the issues facing our state and which candidate has the best solutions to them.
Unfortunately for you, as for some unbeknownst reason you seem to have a gripe with Bruce (who's a fantastic man you should spend time getting to know), it is not true that most of his staff are out-of-state.
MarcusDW: "Hey, here's an idea, Garrett: why don't you leave the gubernatorial race to those of us who care enough about Maine to still live here?"
MarcusDW several hours later: "Snowe's and Collins' staff are more Mainers than Bruce's staff, and the issue is where you're from, not where you live."
Wow I don't think I've see flip flopping like that since Kerry in 2004!
You both are missing the issue. The real issue is that out-of-staters aren't knowledgeable enough about Maine to RUN a statewide campaign here. I don't care that Bruce hired out-of-staters because I hate all out-of-staters; I care because it means he will fail, and if he's the GOP nominee I want him to succeed.
We already saw evidence of this with the whole TABOR debacle. Because it was the primary and most of the other candidates also supported TABOR, it didn't hurt Bruce, but how long until their next mistake does? The last statewide campaign to be run by out-of-state consultants was Allen For Senate 2008. His percentage of the vote was a larger difference between Obama than any other statewide Democratic candidate in the country.
Hiring bright, expensive people to come in and run campaigns in Maine just doesn't work, because they don't understand the foibles of Maine politics. They can certainly assist, but if they're in charge it only leads to disaster.
Something else worth noting is that the two Democratic members of Congress representing Maine defeated Congressional staffers (Kevin Raye and Charlie Summers) to win their seats. Not exactly a good trend for staffers. Maybe Abbott will break the trend, but I'm not holding my breath. If we want to actually go the distance and win the White House, we want someone with the personality, message and resources to go the distance.
Do you really believe that Steve Abbott will not use out-of-state consultants. Give me a break! He has been in Washington DC since 1994. That's all he knows. Let's see how that plays out. C'mon Marcus it is easy to be a devil's advocate, no commitments, no accountabilty, we all know you are in the Abbott camp.
What's the record on real-estate developers no one's ever heard of running for office?
Try reading, Hutch. Then maybe you might understand what I was writing.
No change or conflict in those two statements whatsoever. They are addressing totally separate points.
That's my actual name, Garrett. No quotes needed.
That's my actual name, Garrett. No quotes needed.
Ok I'll walk you through this. In the first comment, you directly imply that people from Maine who don't live here don't "care enough about Maine".
Then when I point out that many Snowe and Collins staffers now live in DC, you assert that "the issue is where you're from, not where you live".
Maybe I'm missing something, but that seems pretty contradictory to me. I guess you truly are playing "devils advocate" and just making whatever argument works at any given moment.
I'll walk you through this: I was talking about different people. Next.
For the record, I am an unenrolled voter considering voting Republican this year. Being attacked by a GOP candidate's supporters for asking questions about their statements makes me more inclined to vote Democrat. Before meeting you two I would have said that if Bruce had been the Republican nominee I'd have voted for him. Now, I'm not so sure. Excellent work.
I suppose "Marcus" must have been infuriated by Senator Collins hiring this Washington, DC consulting firm during her re-election campaign. http://www.yourvote.me/AdWatch_Collins.html Who managed her campaign again?
Abbott doesn't want to be a governor. This is just the opportunity for him as a stepping stone to a state seat.
The preened and groomed Progressive, Mills, wasn't picking up steam, people didn't buy the hype, so Susan, so quick and nimble on her feet air-dropped Abbott by his feet into the race.
He's a Statist, his allegience is to his ''handlers'' and he prefers the usual, negotiating away your libertys and labors with a smile, stuffing other politicians pockets for future reward.