Summers: Mainers like candidates with a bipartisan approach

At the Republican National Convention this week, PolitickerME.com is asking prominent Maine Republicans why Republicans elected to the state’s highest offices tend to be moderates. Examples we’re using are Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Margaret Chase Smith and Bill Cohen.

See also: Maine GOP hopes to recoup 2006 losses

MINNEAPOLIS -- While the 2008 election has ignited sharp partisan exchanges, First Congressional District candidate Charlie Summers(R-Scarborough) said what Mainers really want to see is candidates who are willing to reach out across the aisle.

Maine is traditionally a blue state, and the Republicans who do best there are the moderates, such as current Sens. Susan Collins (R-Bangor and Olympia Snowe (R-Auburn).

It’s not just about the candidates being moderates, but about their ability to reach out to independent voters, Summers said.

“People need to feel like (their candidates) give every issue a fair hearing,” Summers said. “The issues facing our country are large enough that we don’t have the luxury of getting into deep partisan squabbles.”

In the Republican primary, Summers faced Dean Scontras (R-Eliot) who stood further to the right as a social conservative.

Social issues such as abortion and gay rights aren’t a significant concern for Summers, and he said they aren’t a concern for most Mainers.

“Mainers can be very private people,” Summers said. “I’m someone who believes that for what’s happening in a person’s lives, the government shouldn’t be involved.”

Political differences aren’t as extreme as they are perceived to be, Summers said, rather they are inflated by the media.

“(Those stories) sell newspapers,” Summers said. “Those of us working in the middle, trying to do the right thing for the state and the country, are not a terribly interesting story.”

Summers said the politician he identifies the most with is former U.S. Sen. Everett Dirksen (R-Ill.) who served from 1951 to 1969. A Senate office building was later named after him. Dirksen was instrumental in passing the Civil Rights Act in 1964 by bringing in enough Republican votes.

Others he admires, Summers said, are Harry Truman, Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson.

“They are people who respected the institution of Congress and recognized that they would not get everything they wanted, so they were willing to compromise,” Summers said. “Their politics really stopped at the water’s edge.”

Summers said he will win in November because of his willingness to work with Democrats. He said of his opponent Chellie Pingree (D-North Haven):

“Chellie (Pingree) is a very partisan person,” Summers said. “When someone’s first impulse is to impeach the President in their first 17 days in office… I really don’t believe it’s a pressing issue.”

PolitickerME asked Pingree’s campaign to respond. Spokesman Willy Ritch noted a number of problems that have come up during the Bush administration, yet Republicans gathered in Minneapolis to cheer for the outgoing President.

“Chellie believes--and has consistently said throughout her campaign--that the first priorities of the new Congress and the new Administration should be addressing our economic problems and energy crisis, fixing our broken healthcare system and ending the war in Iraq,” Ritch said.

Summers is a delegate for John McCain at the Republican National Convention. He is only staying in Minneapolis for a day and a half before heading back to Maine to campaign.

He said that he is meeting with a number of groups that are supporting his candidacy. Tonight he said he is most looking forward to seeing vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.