AUGUSTA – Last month, the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign sent a letter to volunteers it has identified as “religious” seeking help in mobilizing voters for the fall campaign. But whether the effort will succeed will vary from state to state, said several Maine political experts because religion and politics do not always mix as expected.

“It could backfire on them,” said Amy Fried, a political science professor at the University of Maine. “People who go to church more regularly tend to vote Republican; people who go to church or synagogue less frequently tend to vote Democratic. But what they are proposing could upset some people, particularly in Maine.”

The campaign is asking its “religious volunteers” to complete a list of 22 tasks by the November election. Those range from getting a copy of their church directory to the state campaign office by the end of this month to hosting potluck dinners by mid-September with a campaign theme.

“In a state like Maine I don’t think it will work very well where we have such a rich tradition and history of independence,” Fried said.

Bowdoin College government professor Chris Potholm has been observing Maine voters for decades. He also owns a polling firm, not affiliated with the college, that has given him insight into how Maine voters weigh the issues before they decide how to cast their vote.

“There has never, in my 25 years of polling, been a direct impact on a candidate by a church or church related group,” he said. “The fundamentalist Christian movement in Maine is so small it is hard to measure what impact they may have had.”

He said Maine has had some candidates with a religious connection. The Rev. Herman “Buddy” Frankland ran third in the 1978 Governor’s race and Jack Wyman, then the executive director of the Maine Christian Civic League, polled less than 20 percent of the vote against U.S. Sen. George Mitchell in 1988. But, Potholm said, religion has played a role in a few ballot questions.

“On partial birth abortion, for example, Catholics were not overwhelmingly against it,” he said, “But, on the other hand, on assisted suicide, they were overwhelmingly opposed to that question.”

The 2000 referendum on assisted suicide was defeated by 17,249 votes out of the 647,311 that were cast. The 1999 referendum banning partial birth abortion was defeated by a wide margin, 232,113 to 185,541.

University of Southern Maine Political Science professor Richard Maiman said New Englanders in general, and Mainers in particular, do not like to mix their political views with their religious beliefs.

“New Englanders tend to rate religion as a less important influence on their lives and on their political lives, “he said. “I think that is also the case here in Maine.”

Jim Melcher, a political science professor at the University of Maine at Farmington, said polls have shown a greater correlation between party affiliation and church attendance. He does not believe that trend is as strong in Maine as in some states, but there are indications of change.

“Catholics are not as connected to the Democrat party as they once had been,” he said, “and I suspect there may be other trends as well that we have not picked up on.”

Melcher believes a person’s religious views do affect his or her vote, but it competes with far more social and economic issues than it used to. He said most voters’ weigh a lot of factors in deciding how to vote on an issue or which candidate to support.

“Things like abortion and gay marriage are pushing their way on to the political agenda in a way people 40 years ago would not have expected,” he said.

All four professors said that candidates, or campaign managers, need to be wary of playing the religious card in a campaign. It often can hurt as much as it helps.

-30-