Bush’s campaign chairman predicts Maine will be important in 2004.
LEWISTON – Just one of Maine’s four electoral votes could give President Bush the edge he needs to win what he believes will be another hard-fought election in November, his national campaign chairman said Friday night.
Addressing a seated dinner crowd of about 35 Republican college students at Bates College, former Montana Gov. Marc Racicot (pronounced RAS-coe) predicted the state that picked Democrat Al Gore over Bush in 2000 would be up for grabs this year.
“We’re going to win Maine. That’s what we believe. That’s why we’re here,” he said.
The Bush/Cheney re-election campaign has targeted closely won or lost states from the 2000 election for early organizing. Maine’s 2nd Congressional District gave Gore about 20,000 more votes than Bush in 2000, Racicot noted. That means, with 10,001 more votes, Maine could have given Bush an additional vote in the Electoral College. Maine is one of only a few states that splits its electoral votes. The rest of the states are winner-take-all.
Gore won the popular vote nationally in 2000, but lost the election by only five electoral votes.
Mainers have voted for Republicans in the past and will again, Racicot said. The GOP has two veteran U.S. senators and narrowly lost the 2nd Congressional District race for a U.S. House Seat in 2002 in Maine, evidence that voters here are open minded about their political candidates.
“At the end of the day, if you can prove your cause, they will put their confidence in you,” he said.
With no primary opponent, Racicot said his campaign has a distinct time advantage over the eventual Democratic presidential nominee. An important part of his campaign’s organization will be recruitment of college students.
Polls show that “60 to 65 percent of young people in this country are supportive of the president’s agenda and leadership,” Racicot said.
The ranks of students claiming membership in the College Republicans of Maine has swelled to roughly 600 at nine schools, triple the number in 1992, according to Dan Schuberth, state chairman of the group who helped organize Friday’s dinner.
His members plan to recruit other registered Republican students to volunteer for the re-election campaign, he said. The students are expected to, among other efforts, conduct voter drives, make phone calls, organize speakers and rallies and get voters to the polls.
Racicot planned to attend Saturday’s so-called “super caucus” of the Maine Republican Party in Augusta where voters from eight towns are scheduled to meet in one place to pledge support for the presidential candidates of their choice.
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