BANGOR, Maine — Jason Levesque wants the federal government to do a lot more to help downtown businesses like those he and U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe toured on Main Street on Thursday.
The first thing it can do, he said, is get out of the way.
“I’ve heard it in every downtown I’ve visited,” Levesque said as he stood outside the Maine Discovery Museum. “Businesses want legislative and regulatory consistency from the federal government. They are fighting very hard to keep their businesses going and they want to see it [the federal government] not interfere with their success.”
Constantly changing federal regulations and requirements make it especially difficult for the small businesses that are the backbone of the Maine economy to save money and feel confident enough to invest it in their own enterprises, Levesque said.
Levesque — the Republican challenger of four-term Democratic incumbent Mike Michaud in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District — Snowe and a contingent of Bangor GOP candidates hammered at familiar conservative themes as they walked downtown Thursday.
Their arguments: Less government is good. Government overregulation stifles competitiveness and discourages initiative. Federal government growth is out of control. Job creation should be the nation’s top priority. The Democratic Party is a slave to special interests and has lost touch with common folk.
An Auburn entrepreneur who owns a small marketing business, Levesque echoed comments he made in previous downtown tours of Norway, Belfast and Ellsworth.
But he also noted news reports Thursday that the number of first-time applicants for unemployment benefits nationwide reached the half-million mark last week for the first time since November, marking a rise in new unemployment claims for the third straight week.
“We are all waiting for good news,” he said, “and we haven’t heard it yet.”
Snowe agreed.
“If the small businesses do not create jobs, then we [government leaders] are not doing the things we can do to create jobs,” Snowe said.
She called the new unemployment statistics “deeply troubling. It shows that we are working in the wrong direction.”
A bit tired from a somewhat relentless campaign schedule, Levesque said he felt his campaign has been reaching voters. He noted with some relish U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk’s recent tour of Maine manufacturing businesses with Michaud.
“When a senior administration official campaigns with a four-term congressman in Maine, you know that they [Democrats] are worried,” Levesque said.
Greg Olson, Michaud’s campaign manager, said Levesque was wrong.
“I thought he was up here to lobby the congressman on trade issues,” Olson said Thursday of Kirk. “Mike has been very skeptical, if not outright opposed, to trade deals that the Obama administration has been pushing. I think they see him as an opponent when it comes to the South Korea and Peru trade deals.”
Michaud chairs the House Trade Working Group, a collection of lawmakers advocating fair trade policies that has been working to promote a new trade model that benefits American workers and businesses.
A political neophyte, Levesque reported nearly $217,000 in contributions from the beginning of this campaign cycle through June 30, while Michaud reported $755,000 raised.
Levesque said he enjoyed listening Thursday to the business owners and their customers.
“Mainers deserve a little more leadership,” he told Noreen Nee of Boston, a visitor to Rebecca’s Gift Shop on Main Street. “I have a small business. I know what it’s like to succeed, and I know what it’s like to fail, and I know how it is to just muddle along.”
Walking with Snowe, Levesque said, was “on-the-job training” that gave him a chance to banter with people, which he likes to do.
Russell Gillen, owner of Computer Solutions, got a laugh when the candidates walked into his store.
“Everybody has to buy a laptop before they leave,” Levesque announced.
Gillen told Snowe and Levesque that he has been in the computer business for more than 20 years but had been in the storefront at 73 Main St., a former jewelry store, since December.
“We see ourselves growing,” Gillen said.
“Well, you are going to be getting my laptop on Monday,” Levesque said. “My wife dropped it. It’s been flickering ever since.”
Perhaps showing just how hard it is to run for election in a congressional district as vast as the 2nd, Gillen and several others said they weren’t familiar with Levesque. But they liked that he had visited, and listened, though Lois Spellman of Bangor, a clerk at Rebecca’s, said Levesque probably wouldn’t get her vote.
“I am for Mike Michaud,” she said.
“Mike has done a good job,” added Helene Rogan of Lucerne, another clerk at the store.
Levesque might have better luck with Cynthia Fowlow of Glenburn, who expressed alarm at the deficit spending of the Obama administration.
“I am leaning toward becoming a member of the Tea Party,” she said.