Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

Voters, Summers get face time on jobs tour

By JUSTIN ELLIS Staff Writer

— By JUSTIN ELLIS

Staff Writer

The man who wants to represent Maine's 1st Congressional District is bagging sixpacks of beer and smokes for weekend warriors.

''How ya doing? I'm Charlie Summers, and I'm running for Congress,'' says the Republican candidate, handing a man a lottery scratch ticket.

It's the beginning of another weekend of campaigning, and on this Friday, Summers finds himself working under the fluorescent lights at Bob & Mike's Mini Mart on Elm Street in Saco.

Summers is in familiar territory, having literally been down this road before. In 2004, during his unsuccessful run against Democratic U.S. Rep. Tom Allen for the 1st District seat, he paid a similar visit to Bob & Mike's.

That loss, coupled with a district that voted a Democrat into office in nine of the last 10 congressional races, and high unfavorability ratings for President Bush, would seem to give an edge to his opponent, Democrat Chellie Pingree,

But with Allen now challenging Republican Sen. Susan Collins, leaving an open congressional seat, Summers sees things differently. He's counting on his previous run for Congress, his years working for Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe and his time as a state legislator to give voters a sense of where he stands.

What matters most to Mainers, he says, is not the ''R'' or ''D'' after a candidate's name, but hard work and being able to relate to everyday life and representing that point of view in Washington.

Between now and the Nov. 4 election, Summers is intent on outworking his way to victory in the 1st District, which is why he finds himself behind the counter on this recent Friday night. His plan is to work 30 jobs by Election Day and to keep busy by shaking hands, bumping fists, walking parades, busing tables and shoveling bait.

''It's only a few hours,'' Summers says of the time he has spent on each of his 30 jobs. ''But you can at least walk a few miles in somebody's shoes and understand what they face every single day.''

AT FOOTBALL GAME, FAMILIAR FACES

It's raining at Waterhouse Field in Biddeford. Kennebunk's and Biddeford's high school football teams are warming up. The smell of popcorn and mud is in the air, and Quiet Riot's ''Cum On Feel the Noize'' is blaring from the loudspeakers.

Outside the gate, Summers, 48, is introducing himself to people.

''This just comes with the territory. It's fun,'' he says, before thrusting his hand in front of football boosters, arms loaded with blankets, cushions and ponchos.

Ruth Summers made sure to get her husband out from behind the counter at Bob & Mike's to get to the game on time.

Summers largely owes his candidacy to her efforts over the last year. While her husband, a Naval Reserve officer, was stationed in Iraq, Ruth Summers was the face of Charlie Summers' campaign, stumping for her husband at forums and bean suppers across the district. The candidate himself returned just a month before the June 10 GOP primary.

On nights like this, Summers doesn't get the chance to talk about how he would support making health care costs deductible from income tax, improve the health and benefits system for veterans or his support for oil and gas exploration in the United States.

Instead, it's mostly ''I'm running for Congress'' and ''Enjoy the game.''

He gets lots of ''Hey, I know you's'' from the crowd, some saying they recognize him from TV commercials, others from his time in the state Legislature and some from even further back.

''Believe it or not, I run into a lot of people I used to collect bottles and cans from,'' Summers says.

Denis Litalien of Biddeford, who came for the game, knows those days. His wife's wallpaper business was a neighbor to Charlie's Beverage and Redemption years ago.

Litalien said he thinks people can relate to Summers because he knows what it's like to struggle and try to run your own business.

''I've been talking about him to a lot of people lately,'' Litalien says.

BUSING TABLES, TALKING GAS COSTS

It's Sunday morning at Eggspectations restaurant in South Portland, and the post-church and no-church crowd is hungry for brunch.

This morning isn't a stop for a breather. Summers, dressed in the requisite black shirt and blue jeans, is here to clean tables.

So far on his ''30 jobs'' campaign tour he's been a vegetable farmer, brew master and hairdresser. The idea is to get a feel for the work Mainers are doing day to day and to find out what issues are making that daily grind even harder.

Plates piled with waffles, eggs and fruit are lining up from the kitchen, and the wait staff is streaming in and out like trains at Grand Central Station. There's already a wait at the front door, and families are eager for a seat.

With a crowd that has hunger more on its mind than the election, this is a potentially dangerous place for political theater. But Summers, who says he cleaned tables at his family's restaurant when he was younger, says there's no better way to know what's on people's minds.

Summers shadows Joe Wescott, 24, and they clean up dishes, wipe down tables and arrange silverware. They make small talk about politics and the cost of gas, which hurts Wescott, since he works multiple jobs and that means more driving.

Wescott said he didn't have to show Summers too much, and ''it was pretty good to have a little bit of help.''

Wescott said he's not very politically inclined because he often doesn't see much difference between the big-name candidates. Still, he shrugs his shoulders and says of Summers, ''I'll probably vote for him.''

Denis Sparagis, owner of the restaurant, has known Summers for about five years. He said he had no problem welcoming Summers because it's an opportunity to talk about how rising energy costs affect his customers, his employees and the price of goods.

Higher fuel costs have led to higher costs for things like chicken and bacon. ''I can't get cheaper bacon or sausage,'' he says. ''My customers expect the same thing as always.''

Summers tells Sparagis that the way to bring costs down is by investing in alternative fuels and exploring for oil here in the United States.

''I feel we need to look for oil here first,'' Summers says.

INFLUENCED BY YEARS AS SNOWE AIDE

By Sunday afternoon, Summer has ditched his restaurant clothes for a different kind of uniform -- khaki pants, dress shirt and navy blue blazer -- for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the Republican Party's York County office in Eliot.

Around 20 Republicans mill about the small office, which is adorned with stickers and signs for candidates from John McCain all the way down to state Senate races.

Summers was a state senator from 1991 to 1994. But he says the following decade he spent as state director for Snowe helped define his style of politics.

Summers proudly accepts the label of ''moderate,'' and he believes it's something Mainers expect from their politicians.

''I just don't think Maine can afford people drawing ideological lines in the sand,'' he says. ''It's a small state, a small congressional delegation, and you have a responsibility at the end of the day to move the process forward.''

Summers talks the good bipartisan talk and tries to avoid political attacks. It's in stops like this -- not the jobs, parades or handshaking -- that he really goes at the issues and tries to contrast himself with Pingree.

''It's about energy. It's about drilling here in this country, exploring for energy in this country,'' Summers tells the audience.

''People think it's kind of arrogant in the United States to go to other countries and say, 'Give us your oil because we don't want to drill for our own.' The fact is we need a bridge to get us to our energy future.''

Sarah ''Sally'' Lewin, who represents Eliot and part of South Berwick in the Maine House of Representatives, said Republicans in the state are fired up to work hard for candidates like Collins and Summers.

''Conservatism is not dead,'' says Lewin. ''They can say it until hell freezes over, but it's not true.''

Lewin says she's known Summers for 20 years and thinks Mainers have a good sense of who he is and what he believes. She says the 1st District is winnable for Summers.

''Look at him, his ideas, his voting record,'' Lewin says. ''You just know who he is. And he's not Chellie Pingree.''

Summers spends a few minutes with the local candidates before Ruth and an aide remind him that he's due in Portland in a few hours. He's been at the GOP office just short of an hour and he's out the door again.

''You feel like you never want to stop moving,'' Summers says. ''I learned that from Olympia Snowe.''

Staff Writer Justin Ellis can be contacted at 791-6380 or at:

jellis@pressherald.com