Portland Press Herald - "Pingree Has D.C. Experience, Funding Paradox"

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Portland Press Herald - "Pingree Has D.C. Experience, Funding Paradox"

Election 2008: She supports campaign-finance reform but also is an effective fundraiser.

Shortly after Chellie Pingree lost her 2002 bid to unseat Sen. Susan Collins, she got an unexpected phone call.

At the time, Pingree did not know what her future held. She no longer owned the business she had started on North Haven. She was mulling the possibility of working in the public-policy realm in Augusta, where she had served eight years in the state Legislature.

But then the phone rang, and a job recruiter was on the line. The caller wanted to know if Pingree would be interested in taking the reins of Common Cause, a Washington-based government watchdog group.

"It's funny, because my first reaction was, 'No, I don't really want to go to Washington,' " Pingree recalled. "And then I had a little talk with myself and said, 'Wait a minute, you were running for the U.S. Senate. You would have gone to Washington if you had won.' "

Pingree ultimately took the job at Common Cause, an organization that was then best known for its advocacy of campaign-finance reform. It was a decision with big ramifications for her political career.

Pingree is now one of six Democrats and two Republicans running to succeed Democratic Rep. Tom Allen, who is leaving his seat in Maine's 1st Congressional District to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Voters will choose one Democrat and one Republican in the June 10 primary to square off in the Nov. 4 general election.

Pingree has raised more than twice as much money as any other candidate, and she credits her tenure at Common Cause with helping to build an unmatched network of supporters. But her four years in the nation's capital also have led to criticism from one of her Democratic opponents that she is a Washington insider whose fundraising prowess conflicts with her statements about the need to change the nation's campaign finance-system.

POLITICAL CAREER BORN ON ISLAND

For Pingree, it was a long, unexpected journey from a coastal Maine island to Washington.

Pingree arrived on North Haven while she was still a teenager. A Minnesota native, she had spent her last year of high school in Massachusetts, where she met her future husband, Charlie.

In 1971, the two of them moved to the island in Penobscot Bay as part of the back-to-the-land movement sweeping the country during that period. "So we lived in a cabin with no running water, no electricity, for a couple years," Pingree said.

The couple later divorced, but over the years North Haven became home for Pingree. It was where she raised her three children, and where she started a business that sold wool from the sheep on her farm.

Pingree's political career began when she became the island's tax assessor. In 1992 she was elected to the Maine Senate. Four years later, Pingree became Senate majority leader, a position she held until 2000, when term limits prevented her from seeking re-election. Pingree's signature achievement in Augusta was Maine Rx, a program established by a law she sponsored that was aimed at lowering the cost of prescription drugs.

In 2002, Pingree was the Democratic Party's choice to run against Collins. During the campaign, Pingree spoke out against invading Iraq without the involvement of the United Nations and focused on lowering the cost of prescription drugs. She lost the race, collecting just 42 percent of the vote to Collins' 58 percent.

Looking back, Pingree attributes the defeat to bad timing, noting that the political climate after the September 2001 terrorist attacks favored Republicans.

"I don't know that there's anything that we could have done to have won that year," she said.

But even at a tough time for Democrats, Pingree showed strength as a fundraiser. She raked in $3.9 million during her Senate race, staying competitive with Collins, who raised $4.3 million.

Pingree's fundraising efforts that year drew close scrutiny.

After the 2002 election, the Federal Election Commission audited her campaign and found mistakes in reporting nearly $100,000 in contributions. The Pingree campaign corrected the mistakes during the year-long audit.

Also during the 2002 race, Pingree and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee established a joint fundraising committee, which was not subject to contribution limits.

STRONG BUT RELUCTANT FUNDRAISER

At the time, the Collins campaign declined to do the same, saying it would be hypocritical because Collins favored campaign-finance reform.

Pingree said she favored a ban on these unlimited contributions, but was operating within the law as it existed at the time. Pingree's joint fundraising committee raised $705,000 from just two contributors.

"She has a Rolodex that's astonishing," said state Sen. Peter Mills, R-Cornville, one of Pingree's former colleagues in Augusta.

Mills said that even though Pingree is a good at raising money, she doesn't enjoy it, which is one reason why she favors reform.

"She's told me personally that she hates this system. She hates fundraising," said Mills, who is supporting Republican Charlie Summers in the 1st District race. "There is no other pathway to political power."

Pingree arrived at Common Cause in February 2003, which she described as a period of change in the organization.

"In a way, they were kind of the MoveOn of their day," Pingree said, referring to the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org, "because they were the first organization to really engage people. But when I got there, their Internet list had 25,000 people on it. So they hadn't really transitioned."

Common Cause's signature issue had long been campaign-finance reform, but that cause had less resonance with the public in 2003 after enactment of the McCain-Feingold law, which banned unlimited contributions to national political parties.

Under Pingree's watch, Common Cause branched out to other causes.

It lobbied against media consolidation, and sought to require states that use electronic voting machines to maintain a paper trail.

On campaign-finance reform, Pingree was part of an effort to push for public financing of state elections, rather than trying to plug gaps in federal law.

"She did move the organization in a new direction," said David Donnelly of the Public Campaign Action Fund, another group that advocates for public financing.

Some of the changes at Common Cause created a backlash.

At one point a Washington newspaper published a story that quoted Republicans as saying that Pingree was too much of a Democratic partisan to lead an organization that is supposed to be nonpartisan.

In a recent interview, Pingree said she worked with conservative groups such as the National Rifle Association and the Christian Coalition on issues where they shared the same view as Common Cause.

But Pingree acknowledged her tenure was sometimes rocky, recalling an effort in 2004 by certain members of the Common Cause board to oust her.

Early last year, after Allen signaled that he might run for the U.S. Senate, Pingree stepped down as president of Common Cause. About two months later, she filed paperwork to run for the House seat.

DONATIONS FROM OUT OF STATE

Through March 31, 2008, Pingree's campaign has raised $1.1 million, much of it from donors outside of Maine. She gives some credit to the connections she made at Common Cause.

"I got to know people all over the country, and a lot of people who shared the same issues that I did," Pingree said.

In recent weeks, Democratic opponent Ethan Strimling has been trying to use Pingree's time at Common Cause against her.

Strimling has been hammering away at Pingree for accepting contributions from wealthy out-of-state donors, juxtaposing the contributions with quotes by Pingree about the need for campaign-finance reform.

Pingree doesn't see a contradiction.

She says she's a progressive on nearly every issue, from the Iraq war to taxes to health care to the environment. She says she's never done a favor for a contributor as an elected official, and never will.

And she vows that if she's elected to Congress, she'll publish her schedule so that anyone can know who's meeting with her.

And while opponents may seek to cast her as a Washington insider, she portrays her time in the nation's capital as an asset, saying that she understands how Congress works.

"If I'm lucky enough to be the person who serves, I think it will make a huge difference," Pingree said.

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