AUGUSTA, Maine — Charlie Summers has turned to the leader of a conservative advocacy group and experienced Republican operative to manage his campaign.
Summers said Thursday his campaign has hired Lance Dutson, CEO of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, to lead the Republican’s bid for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Olympia Snowe.
“Lance Dutson is an outstanding leader with a sharp political mind,” Summers said in a statement announcing Dutson’s hire. “This will be a challenging race, and Lance will help lead us to victory in November.”
Dutson joined the Maine Heritage Policy Center in August 2011 after working separate stints as communications director for House Speaker Robert Nutting and the Maine Republican Party. He also has worked for Maine Sen. Susan Collins and New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, both Republicans.
Dutson said he’s excited to return to electoral politics and that Summers would fit well in a line of Maine senators that includes Margaret Chase Smith, Collins and Snowe.
“He’s known for approaching things not so much from a moderate ideology, but a moderate approach to issues and a level of decorum and respect that I think is very much in keeping with that same heritage,” Dutson said.
Former Gov. Angus King “is enjoying a very major name ID advantage right now,” Dutson said. But “Charlie’s a determined campaigner.”
While Summers has been unsuccessful in his runs for Congress from Maine’s southern 1st District, Dutson said the Senate race has a different calculus.
“Now that you factor in the more conservative 2nd District, you can see a very specific path to victory,” he said.
Under Dutson, the Maine Heritage Policy Center began the conservative news blog The Maine Wire and sought boxes of documents from the Maine State Housing Authority that the think tank said showed inappropriate and wasteful spending.
Last month, the liberal nonprofit Maine’s Majority published a string of emails it obtained under Maine’s Freedom of Access Act that the group said showed collusion among Dutson, state Treasurer Bruce Poliquin and MaineHousing board chairman Peter Anastos to force out former MaineHousing director Dale McCormick for political reasons. The Maine Heritage Policy Center and Poliquin had been highly critical of McCormick’s management of Maine Housing.
Anastos earlier this month denied that a “witch hunt” had taken place aimed at removing McCormick.
Along with King, Summers is facing Democratic state Sen. Cynthia Dill and independent Steve Woods in the Senate race. Summers won a six-way Republican primary on June 12 to become his party’s Senate nominee.
Dutson said the Maine Heritage Policy Center plans to announce a permanent replacement for him on Monday.
“I think what I’m most proud of is being part of this team that has made a huge impact on the public policy discussion in Maine,” he said.
And yet the final compelling reason NOT to vote for Charlie Summers…pffffffffffft
{Lance Dutson is an outstanding leader with a sharp political mind,” Summers said in a statement announcing Dutson’s hire. “This will be a challenging race, and Lance will help lead us to victory in November.”}
WOW! The Puppet is Plugging for the Puppet Master!
Now, everyone that still believes that the Secretary of State’s Office didn’t know that they were running out of Voter Registration card’s right after the MHPC came out and called for the end to Same Day Registration please, stand up and repeat after me. “I am not brain dead” and please be sure you have a next of kin tag on you somewhere so we know where to ship the body. Charlie’s outta the closet now. The next step is gonna be his public statement that he’s gonna be signing the Norquist pledge. And I can’t wait to see how he’s gonna defend the GOP position on the Health Care Act. This is better than SNL at the Statehouse !
I bet Lance has a whole room full of purloined voter registration cards at MHPC headquarters.
Yessah
And thus the reason why Maine is skating so close to the edge of the electoral ice. Whether he likes it or not, Charlie has gone out and done just about all he could to get this election overseen by the Federal Elections Commission. And given how much the MHPC has made a stink of the voter registration issue, you can bet that the FEC, if they show up in response to a complaint, is going to be looking to hang ANYONE that they find has been playing fast and loose with ballot’s, voter registration’s or voter intimidation. Maine, given the size of the State itself, and the uproar that the voter registration issue has caused, is going to be treated very differently than Florida was. Florida was the FEC’s 1st run in with ballot questioning and voter issue’s. You can be dammed sure that the folk’s at the FEC learned from Florida and I for one would not like to be their poster child for getting caught. Tampering with a ballot is a Federal offense and given the attitude of the Federal Judge’s right now, it’s not the ‘smart’ thing to do. Ayers or Dix is not a place I’d want anyone to come visit me at.
Your spectacular inaccuracy is exceeded only by your miserable tendency to exaggerate.
If I ever had an ounce of respect for Charlie Summers, he just flushed it down the drain. True colors or desperation, either one shows that Summers is nothing but an empty suit looking for his next job as a shill.
MHPC/ALEC/Grover Norquist/ and anyone else that has the bucks puppet masters. Is this what you want in a Senator?
Oh no!! This is terrible news. There is absolutely no reason what so ever for The Grand Wizard to stop leading his clan of highly paid political operatives at MHPC. The Grand Wizard has proven that he is perfectly capable of controlling the Charlie Summers puppet, the LePage puppet,
the Poliquin puppet and the Schneider and Raye puppets all at the same time.
—
It is nice of Summers to give a high school kid a summer job!
The scary part is that this clown was probably the chosen one to run the campaign for any of the GOP candidates that won the primary. Can’t wait to see who the replacement at MHPC is. Probably Trevor Bragdon, Tarren’s brother. Just a guess.
Sleeze and Sleezier.
Thanks, Charlie, for everything you’re doing to guarantee you will lose. Those of us with functioning brains have learned that all we need do is sit back and wait and laugh.
Does this mean Summers will get the Heritage society’s fake videos and racists propaganda leaflets at a discount?
It’s where he takes his orders from anyway.
Wow this is a death blow to his near-campaign.
Charlie is not very bright.
Dill 4 Senate.
Yessah
That move is a career-killer. Charlie’s pretty face may have gotten him some votes but aligning with the MHPC show’s he doesn’t have the brains to go with it.
Good to see that Charlie will be his own man…. /sarcasm
Wow, I just took a call for a supposedly independent political poll, and the further I got into it, the more it became clear it was a pro Charlie Summers, pro Republican and an anti Angus King ‘poll”. If it was not a woman doing it, I would have believed it was Summers himself on the other end, sounded like he wrote it. Now that I read this story, i am convinced it was a fake poll. I think there is going to be some very dirty campaigning in the Senate election., from the Republican side at least.
They have the right campaign manager to do it.
This means that the Summers campaign will be brought to you by the Koch Brothers, Texas oil billionaires. Charlie will be drinking some tea in this race, for sure.
Why do all of these Heritage Club guys all look alike? Are they clones?
Their smiles never reach their eyes, which look kind of dead. Makes me wonder what they’ve been repressing their whole lives.
This speaks volumes.
Dill and fellow Democrat, Angus King, will split the vote. After today’s Supreme Court’s action of rewriting the Obamacare legislation, a match has been put to the fuse of all working and conservative people’s anger at increased government taxes and control. My money’s on Summers, not the two moonbats.
Last I heard, King had over 50%. How’s Charlie going to overcome that? Hide the Registration forms in Lance’s office?
Dill and fellow Democrat, Angus King, will split the vote. After today’s Supreme Court’s action of rewriting the Obamacare legislation, a match has been put to the fuse of all working and conservative people’s anger at increased government taxes and control. My money’s on Summers, not the two moonbats.
If anyone out there, Democrat or Republican has followed Lance Dutson’s carrier, they can not possibly think this is a good move for Charlie. We all thought he was an empty suit, but he has just confirmed it, big time. Will someone please rearrange the chairs on this sinking ship!
One thing Margaret Chase-Smith would ever do Lance is hire a dirty, low-life, political scoundrel as yourself to run her campaign.