PORTLAND, Maine — Voters in Maine’s 1st Congressional District may not see any campaign television advertisements for their U.S. House race this year.
In today’s world of politics — and with a barrage of TV ads coming from Maine’s gubernatorial, U.S. Senate and 2nd District candidates — the lack of commercials for incumbent U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree and her opponents is conspicuous.
It’s also significant, political analysts say. It’s one indication that Pingree is so heavily favored that, instead of spending money on TV time to convince Mainers to vote for her, she can spend money trying to convince voters across the country to vote for Democrats.
And by spending her campaign season helping the campaigns of other Democrats seeking election to Congress, she’s effectively gaining favor and lining up a possible move for a House leadership role or prime committee assignments, pundits say.
Pingree, 59, is being challenged by political newcomers Isaac Misiuk, a young Gorham Republican, and Sanford independent Richard Murphy. A Pan Atlantic SMS poll conducted in late September showed Pingree with 51.4 support compared to 10.4 percent for Murphy and 8.7 percent for Misiuk. A second poll done by Critical Insights in late September pegged Pingree at 53 percent, Misiuk at 19 percent and Murphy at 10 percent.
“She has two challengers, but the reality is she’s unchallenged — there’s no way she’s not going to win,” said Mark Brewer, University of Maine political science professor. “Especially when you have somebody who aspires to a leadership position, which everybody basically knows Pingree does, it’s common for them to spread the money around to other candidates and call those favors in later.”
Pingree is a three-term congresswoman who won by convincing margins in each of her previous three U.S. House races. According to the campaign fund-tracking website FollowTheMoney.org, she has during the past two years donated a total of $110,095 to 27 other candidates’ campaigns or the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which then uses its funding to support party candidates.
Expanding to the household level, Pingree’s family influence is even greater. Husband Donald Sussman, a billionaire investor who supported Democrats long before he married Pingree in 2011, made 70 donations worth about $1.8 million to a range of Democratic candidates and campaign organizations the two years leading into this election.
During her last re-election campaign in 2012, Pingree made 90 donations to other party candidates or groups — totaling $168,737 — and still handily trounced her own Republican challenger, well-known state lawmaker Jonathan Courtney, while receiving nearly 65 percent of votes cast in the 1st District.
Despite what political analysts are calling another lock at the polls this year, Pingree said she’s not taking Misiuk or Murphy for granted. She pointed to incumbent House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s upset loss in Virginia’s June Republican primary as a cautionary tale.
Cantor, a Republican who had represented Virginia residents in Congress for 22 years, was knocked off by Dave Brat, an economic professor little-known outside the district.
“Rule No. 1 is never to take an election for granted,” Pingree said. “The most invincible candidate can not pay attention and not win. I’m debating my opponents and trying to do anything I can to get my messages out there.”
Except, perhaps, one of the most widely used methods of distributing campaign messages.
“I may not put a lot of commercials on TV this year if my opponent doesn’t,” she admitted, “but I’ve never had a constituent tell me, ‘Boy, I really miss seeing your campaign ads on TV.’”
Ronald Schmidt, a political science professor at the University of Southern Maine in Portland, said even though he doesn’t think Pingree “has to work really hard for re-election,” he noted that “it doesn’t hurt to find ways to actively campaign and raise your public profile.”
Schmidt said Pingree’s campaign vigilance is important, “Not just so you don’t wind up being Eric Cantor, but also so you can wind up being [House Minority Leader] Nancy Pelosi or [House Speaker] John Boehner.”
‘I’m not stockpiling money’
Pingree said constituents she talks to in Maine’s left-leaning 1st District are frustrated with what she called a “do-nothing Congress” that has been jammed up by partisan gridlock. And she argued that fighting — using her money or presence on the campaign trail — to get a Democratic majority back in the U.S. House to work with a Democrat-controlled Senate and White House is in the best interests of Mainers.
Some of the funding Pingree is directing to other candidates is staying in-state. The congresswoman and her campaign have donated a total of $4,600 to the 2nd District campaign of Democrat Emily Cain, who is battling former Republican state treasurer Bruce Poliquin for the seat being vacated by Mike Michaud.
She also has given a total of $3,000 to Michaud, now running for governor against Republican incumbent Paul LePage and independent Eliot Cutler, and another $5,200 to Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Shenna Bellows, who is trying to upend Maine’s Republican senior Sen. Susan Collins.
“I’m certainly trying to be helpful to Emily Cain in the 2nd District, because I do think it’s important that we need to return to the majority and that’s an important race to reach that goal, and I care very much about seeing Mike Michaud get to the Blaine House,” she said.
“I do everything I can to help colleagues who run in other congressional districts, because I do want to see us [Democrats] back in the majority, but I’m not spending a disproportionate amount of time on it,” Pingree said. “And I’m not stockpiling money for a run for the U.S. Senate, because I’m in the House, and frankly I like the House. Politics isn’t just a game where you try to figure out what rock you jump to next. There’s value to putting the time in and working toward getting seniority on House committees and putting yourself in a position to influence legislation.”
Pingree already sits on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, a seat she has said she hopes to retain in future sessions. Overall, according to the most recent Federal Election Commission filings through Sept. 30, Pingree has raised a total of about $380,000 and has nearly $332,000 in cash on hand.
Misiuk has raised just more than $20,000 for his campaign, and has less than $2,000 left in cash on hand, while Murphy has raised nearly $8,400 and now has just less than $1,000 on hand.
“Pingree’s young and she has the potential for a long career,” Schmidt said. “Even if she doesn’t have ambitions to run for the U.S. Senate or majority whip, getting prime committee assignments in the House go a long way toward making her more effective for her constituents.”
