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October 16, 2004
Campaign surrogates hit Maine
Saturday, October 16, 2004
By JOSIE HUANG, Portland Press Herald Writer
Copyright © 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
The presidential campaigns wheeled out high-profile surrogates Friday to boost their candidates in Maine, a swing state where the latest polls give a slight advantage to the Democratic challenger.
The Republican governors of Ohio, Rhode Island and Hawaii visited a machine-parts maker in Westbrook to laud President Bush's record on the economy, education and health care.
Former Democratic Sen. George Mitchell, a close colleague of Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, appeared in Portland with a soldier's mother who opposes Bush's handling of the war in Iraq.
Campaigns are spending their manpower reserves and television dollars in Maine because its four electoral votes - and those of other small swing states such as New Hampshire - are seen as vital if either camp loses a major battleground state such as Ohio or West Virginia.
The last two weeks leading up to Nov. 2 are particularly critical for the Bush re-election campaign in Maine. Poll results released late last month by American Research Group and Critical Insights showed the state tilting toward Kerry.
Friday's events, timed an hour apart, showed both sides trying to bolster their candidates in areas where they are most vulnerable to critics.
At D&G Machine Products Inc. in Westbrook, the governors focused on the domestic front, where Bush has been described by the Kerry camp as disengaged from the problems of the middle class.
Ohio Gov. Bob Taft praised the president for enacting tax cuts and for a plan to allow small businesses to pool their purchasing power to buy more affordable health insurance.
"We don't need all the other regulatory costs and high federal expenditures that Kerry would put on our economy," said Taft, who was joined by governors Linda Lingle of Hawaii and Donald Carcieri of Rhode Island as part of a team of 20 governors on a two-day national tour.
Lingle told employees of D&G that their company would suffer under Kerry's pledge to raise taxes for those earning more than $200,000 a year.
Kerry has "told you he's going to take the money out of this company to send it to Washington, D.C.," Lingle said.
None of the employees will lose any money unless the employer, which would likely be affected by a rollback, decided to pay them less, countered Jesse Derris, Kerry spokesman in Maine. Working families in Maine will all see tax cuts if Kerry is elected - more money to be used as an economic stimulus for the middle class and for health care, Derris said.
"These governors should spend more time in their own states, which have all lost manufacturing jobs under George W. Bush, and less time touting his failed politics," he said.
At the Portland Ocean Terminal, Mitchell, a former Senate majority leader, focused on the war in Iraq. He criticized the Bush administration for failing to form a better international coalition in Iraq, and for disbanding all-Iraqi army and security forces, only to realize that was a mistake.
He said this country needs a fresh start and a new leader.
"(Kerry) is intelligent, able and decisive," Mitchell said. "John Kerry will protect the American people at home and advance American national interests abroad."
Mitchell was joined by Sheila Hanley of South Portland, whose son is scheduled to go to Iraq in early November. She portrayed Kerry as an honorable man who saved a fellow soldier in Vietnam.
"My son and others mobilized to Iraq will tell you they go to support the soldier next to them," Hanley said. "John Kerry already knows this and it is one of the reasons our troops will love John Kerry as commander-in-chief."
Heather Layman, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, sounded the Republican theme that Kerry is a waffler on Iraq.
Kerry, after voting for the 2002 resolution authorizing the president to use military force in Iraq, voted against a 2003 appropriations bill that provided $87 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Kerry said he was protesting Bush's policies on the war.
"The president has shown strong leadership in the global war on terror and he will not require a permission slip from other countries to defend our country," Layman said.
Staff Writer Josie Huang can be contacted at 791-6364 or at:
jhuang@pressherald.com
Source: Press Herald, MaineToday.com
Posted by State at October 16, 2004 04:58 PM
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