Maine officials vow Ariz. shooting won’t restrict access to politicians

Members of Maine’s congressional delegation said they will not curtail their public appearances after a gunman’s rampage against an Arizona congresswoman Saturday, though security personnel for some of Maine’s highest officials said the incident is reason enough to bolster their methods.
When their BlackBerrys and cell phones tweeted Saturday with alerts about the shooting, security personnel across Maine and beyond undoubtedly wondered the same thing, according to Noel March, the U.S. Marshal for Maine: Did the shooter in Arizona act alone or were more attacks coming?
“In the interest of exercising an abundance of caution, it’s important to rule in or rule out as quickly as possible whether such an incident is isolated or could be part of a larger threat,” said March, who oversees the protection of nine federal judges in Maine and others on an as-needed basis. The fact that one of the victims of Saturday’s shootings, John Roll, was a federal judge triggered a heightened alert in Maine, though March said it was brief.
“It was quickly determined to be a lone gunman,” March said. “We learned quickly that it was purely random that Chief Judge John Roll was present.”
U.S. District Judge John Woodcock, who serves the district of Maine, holds the same position in Maine that Roll did in Arizona.
“To do our jobs we must make difficult decisions that affect the lives and sometimes the freedom of the people who appear before us,” Woodcock said Monday in a written statement. “On occasion, their unhappiness crosses a line, but this remains rare.”
In an era when what was considered unthinkable yesterday becomes tomorrow’s news, the notion of a coordinated attack against public figures is by no means out of the question. Especially vulnerable are high-level politicians, such as the four members of Maine’s congressional delegation, who spend abundant time in public with little or no security between themselves and constituents. That was the case Saturday for U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who was shot in the head and critically injured while discussing Medicare reimbursements with constituents at a supermarket.
Maine’s congressional delegation, all of whom hold frequent public events, vowed not to let the events in Arizona prevent them from meeting constituents.
Mary Dietrich, chief of staff for Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in a written statement that constituent service is Collins’ “top priority.”
“We don’t want to restrict access by law-abiding constituents,” said Dietrich. “Security measures have to be balanced with the fundamental right of constituents to have direct access to their elected representatives.”
Ed Gilman, a spokesman for Democratic 2nd District Rep. Mike Michaud, echoed that statement.
“We want to continue to foster an environment for discussions between the congressman and the public,” said Gilman. “That’s why the congressman goes home every weekend and has all those events. We don’t want this tragedy to cut anything like that short.”
U.S. Capitol Police, who protect senators and representatives while they are in Washington, have notified lawmakers that new suggestions for public appearances — “mostly commonsense precautions,” according to Gilman — will be released in the coming days. A spokeswoman for the Capitol Police did not return a call seeking comment.
Sgt. Scott Ireland of the Maine State Police Executive Protection Unit, which provides security for the governor, said the Arizona shooting won’t change protocols, which are always changing to begin with.
“We constantly re-evaluate what we do,” said Ireland, who added that Gov. Paul LePage was not at a public event Saturday during the shooting. “We size up every event and every movement and we make separate decisions.”
Willy Ritch, a spokesman for Democratic 1st District Rep. Chellie Pingree, said security is an ongoing concern. When Pingree opened a new Portland office last spring, her staff worked with Capitol Police on the floor plan and security precautions. Otherwise, said Ritch, Capitol Police urge lawmakers to have good relationships with local law enforcement agencies.
“We don’t have to make the judgment calls about whether a situation is dangerous or not,” Ritch said. “We just call the police to provide guidance and they’ll tell us how concerned we should be. One of the impacts of what happened over the weekend is that the staff in all congressional offices are going to take those situations more seriously.”
Pingree, who wrote a column for a website called The Huffington Post in response to Saturday’s shooting, was attacked for it Monday by the Maine Republican Party. In a press release, the party said Pingree was trying to politicize the shooting by making it about the GOP’s efforts to repeal the health care bill passed last year.
In the article, which was posted Sunday, Pingree questioned whether it is appropriate that an effort to repeal the bill — which is called “Repeal the Job Killing Health Care Law Act” — contains the word “killing.”
In a press release, Maine GOP Chairman Charlie Webster said Pingree should be “ashamed of herself.”
“Chellie Pingree’s concern should be for the victims and their families, not for the potential political gain,” Webster said.
Ritch said Pingree had no comment about the Republican party’s assertions, other than to say “it’s a partisan press release.”