CD1

Check PolitickerME.com Tuesday for more on Monday night's debate

Dean Scontras, Republican candidate in the First Congressional District, launched the first negative ad of the primary season Monday, criticizing opponent Charlie Summers for voting for the largest tax increase in Maine’s history in 1991 in the state Senate.

Click here for the ad, in which a narrator reads: “Summers voted to raise income taxes, sales taxes and taxes on food. He didn't stop there. Summers also voted to increase gas taxes, and taxes on meals and lodging.”

Both candidates call themselves fiscal conservatives and have called for tax cuts and less spending in Washington.

“Toxic Hannah” Pingree will be on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric tonight at 6:30.

Pingree, Maine’s House Majority Leader, participated in a Natural Resources Council of Maine study last year where her body was tested for chemicals, an effort to bring awareness to the hazards found in everyday items.

For the past four years Pingree has led efforts to ban penta, octa and deca, flame retardant chemicals found in television sets and furniture.

PolitickerME.com will post audio from the debate in a bit

It was a small event, but nonetheless a fitting venue for Charlie Summers’ first event on the campaign trail.

Summers, a Republican First Congressional District candidate, participated in a candidates forum Monday night at a veterans’ home in his home town, Scarborough.

Summers returned home from Iraq Saturday evening, and spent most of Monday filing the necessary paperwork to get off active duty. For the past nine months his wife, Ruth Summers, has stood in for him on the campaign trail.

Two very different First Congressional District candidates announced advertising campaigns today bearing the same central theme: the need for fresh faces in Washington.

“Times are tough right now, and career politicians don’t seem to be able to get anything done,” begins Democrat Adam Cote in his television advertisement.

“We live in challenging times, and career politicians seem less concerned about improving our way of life,” begins a radio advertisement for Republican candidate Dean Scontras.

Ruth Summers came to Maine’s GOP convention with good news. Her husband, Charlie Summers, left Baghdad Thursday and is starting his journey home.

Republican and Democratic First Congressional District candidates met last night in Augusta to talk about veterans’ issues. Click here for the Kennebec Journal’s coverage.

Republican Congressional candidate Dean Scontras tried a new campaign tactic Monday night.

He hosted a town hall meeting on the economy. By conference call.

It was a tough room.

Dean Scontras, a Republican candidate for the First Congressional District, took the stage Tuesday with four Democrats vying for the CD1 seat. It was a forum put on by two leftist groups, and a crowd of mostly liberals.  read more »

The Summers for Congress campaign announced that it has filed its candidacy petitions with the Secretary of State's office.

In an open letter to the campaign of First Congressional District candidate Charlie Summers, fellow GOP hopeful Dean Scontras’ campaign manager Michael Pajak has proposed a series of public debates prior to the Republican primary.