This summer, one USM alum is taking a gamble that he hopes will land him in Washington, D.C.
But the trip is more than just a few states away.
Political science graduate and Springvale resident Tom Ledue is taking on Maine congressman Tom Allen in the Democratic Party primary this July. That contest will decide who begins the uphill climb against incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins in November.
Even Allen’s entry into the race was seen as something of a long-shot, and he is a reasonably popular elected official. That’s because Senator Collins, despite being a Republican in a blue state, is the kind of Republican blue states love: one widely viewed as a political moderate.
This is a characterization that Maine Democrats are getting increasingly more aggressive in challenging. A major rallying point is Collins’ support for the war in Iraq – she voted for the initial resolution, and has generally supported President Bush (while occasionally criticizing his execution, of late).
That, along with her support of Bush’s tax cuts and energy policy, are points that Allen, Ledue and others are trying to drive home. What remains to be decided is which of them is best equipped to deliver the message.
Ledue understands that Allen – who has been involved in Maine politics since the early 1990s, when he served as mayor of Portland – could very well coast to the primary on name recognition alone. Indeed, Allen’s campaign is already that of a nominee, his website and mailings squarely aimed at Collins.
Ledue has yet to pay for any polling of his own to track how he’s doing. So far, the campaign has been eagerly crisscrossing the state, focused on simply building any recognition – which won’t be easy.
This is the first political campaign Ledue has even worked on, never mind been the center of. For the past 25 years, he has been a teacher, administrator and coach at Noble High School in North Berwick.
That is not to say that the idea just materialized out of nowhere. Back in the mid-1980s, when Ledue was taking a human growth and development course at USM, he recalls one assignment: to write his own obituary.
He remembers that it included “20 years working in education reform, and then going on to three terms in the United States Senate.” So far, so good.
As to why he is taking on Tom Allen, it isn’t a matter of electability – though Allen currently trails Collins by 16 points, according to the latest Rasmussen poll.
The problem, as he sees it, is Allen’s lack of specificity when it comes to how he would help push a progressive agenda in the Senate. He cites Allen’s failure to get behind hearings and investigations into the offices of Vice President Dick Cheney.
While Ledue says he is mostly proud of the values and history of the Democratic Party, he also feels it has become “complicit, leaning towards middle, and not forward-looking enough.”
It is his hope that people are not only looking for something different, but willing to look for it in unlikely places.