RICK BENNETT

Republican Rick Bennett was elected to the Maine House at age 27 and served as Senate president under a unique power-sharing arrangement with Democrat Mike Michaud in an evenly divided Senate in 2002.

After leaving the Senate in 2004, he transformed the Corporate Library into GMI Ratings, a research firm that focuses on corporate governance and has taken companies to task for giving golden parachutes to executive retirees and for overcompensating CEOs who fail to deliver for shareholders.

Headquartered in Portland, the company has created dozens of jobs in Maine, Bennett said. The company also has offices in New York, San Diego and London.

Bennett, 48, believes that experience has made him a better candidate.

“I am not a career politician,” Bennett said. “Many of my opponents have sought office after office after office the past several years.”

Bennett, who served six terms in the Maine Legislature, won a four-way primary in 1994 for Maine’s 2nd District congressional seat but lost the general election to Democrat John Baldacci.

Campaigning this year, he said the nation needs jobs and economic growth, and that government can help by staying out of the way. He says that includes not spending tax dollars on businesses like Solyndra, a solar power company that received federal stimulus funds.

One of his goals would be to reduce the role of the Federal Reserve. The Fed’s purchase of U.S. debt is unsustainable and will drag down the economy in the long run, he said.

At home in Oxford, where he lives with his wife and two children, he enjoys distance running and farming Christmas trees as hobbies. He holds degrees from Harvard and the University of Southern Maine.

SCOTT D’AMBOISE

For a brief time, Scott D’Amboise was the only GOP Senate candidate after U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe announced she wouldn’t seek a fourth term.

Then came a flood of competitors — five from his own party — shaking up the campaign for the conservative who spent two years formulating his plan of attack.

D’Amboise describes himself as a constitutional conservative and derided Snowe for being too liberal. He considers his competitors to be “Snowe clones.”

“We can’t afford to have moderates in the Senate,” he said. “We need elected officials who abide by the Constitution and with conservative principles.”

His goal is to create jobs and remove regulations and restrictions so businesses can thrive. He said all federal programs need to be reviewed, and he wants to eliminate the Internal Revenue Service, the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Reserve.

He ran against U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud in 2006 and lost. This time, he hopes to capitalize on tea party-inspired momentum that helped Gov. Paul LePage get elected in 2010.

D’Amboise, who enjoys support from several tea party groups, said the other candidates are establishment politicians.

The self-described farm boy from Carmel holds two jobs: He’s an eye technician in Portland and owns a cleaning business. He also experienced a personal bankruptcy because of health care costs in 2003.

D’Amboise, 48, went to Hermon High School and attended the University of Maine. Now living in Lisbon Falls, he’s married and has two children. He served three terms on the Lisbon Town Council, where he says he helped save taxpayers $2 million.

DEB PLOWMAN

These days, it’s common to hear criticism of political insiders and career politicians. But Republican state Sen. Debra Plowman said her 16 years in the Legislature represent a strength, not a weakness.

Plowman said her time in the Legislature allowed her to learn how to navigate legislation through committees and to work with people in the political extremes. She said she’s managed to do so without sacrificing principles.

“Getting issues to a resolution takes skill and the ability to recognize all points of view,” said Plowman, assistant majority leader in the state Senate. “I am able to do this while keeping the issues from becoming personal and while maintaining respect for my colleagues.” 

Along the way, she and her husband created a business that installs garage doors. It has grown to six locations and 50 employees.

She makes no apologies for her conservative social views. She opposes abortion and years ago tried to reintroduce the death penalty in Maine.

But now she’s focused on the economy. As a fiscal conservative, Plowman said the nation must pay down debt and return federal government to a narrower mission as defined by the Constitution. One of the first places she would look for cuts would be the federal Department of Education.

She said her experience at PDQ Doors gives her insight into what it takes to run a successful business. She took a four-year hiatus from the Legislature after serving in the Maine House when she and her husband got the project moving.

Plowman, 51, has three children and two grandchildren.

BRUCE POLIQUIN

Bruce Poliquin, who failed in his campaign for governor in 2010, has made the most of his stint as state treasurer.

Poliquin has used his treasurer’s post as a bully pulpit for conservative principles and has worked with Gov. Paul LePage “to get Maine’s fiscal house in order,” he said.

He also called attention to Maine State Housing Authority spending, payroll costs and expenses that critics deemed excessive, leading to the resignation of MaineHousing Director Dale McCormick.

Poliquin, 58, said a true fiscal conservative is needed to address reckless spending and a $16 trillion national debt that has accumulated under “career politicians.” None of Washington’s problems can be solved without addressing three entitlement programs: Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, he said.

“In Maine, I have helped instill fiscal discipline across state government. We are eliminating debt, cutting spending and lowering taxes,” he said. “The problems are the same in Washington.”

The Waterville native helped put himself through Harvard by cleaning bathrooms, busing tables, painting roofs and digging sewer lines, and he’s spent 35 years in the private sector. His privately owned partnership, Avatar Investors Associates Corp., managed nearly $5 billion in worker pension funds.

But he has taken a few hits along the way.

Some critics accused him of trying to take credit for LePage’s successes. Critics also raised questions about whether he was violating the Maine Constitution by engaging in business while serving as treasurer. The dust-up ended when the Maine Supreme Judicial Court declined to address the issue.

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER

Attorney General William Schneider said his ability to overcome adversity distinguishes him from the other candidates running for U.S. Senate.

Schneider was captain of the varsity rifle team at West Point and in the U.S. Army led a special operations unit in the Green Berets.

A van crash in 1985 that left him unable to walk served as the opening of a new chapter in which he went to the University of Maine law school, became a state drug prosecutor, served two terms in the Maine House and was a federal anti-terrorism coordinator in Maine for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

In the Senate race, Schneider said he wants to face down national debt that “puts our sovereignty and solvency in the hands of the foreign powers. Our national debt is the gravest security threat facing the United States today and is my No. 1 issue as Maine’s next United States senator,” he said.

To reduce spending, one of the first things he’d target is Medicaid, which he says is bankrupting the federal government and harming state budgets. Providing federal block grant Medicaid funding to states would create a flexible, cost-effective safety net, he said.

Schneider, 53, also supports a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, health care reform that gives consumers price- and quality-based incentives, and changes to entitlement programs.

He remains grounded at his home in Durham, where he and his wife adopted a daughter. They also raise alpacas on a farm at which the barn and grounds are accessible to the disabled.

CHARLES SUMMERS

Secretary of State Charlie Summers touts a wide-ranging resume.

He’s served in the Legislature, he’s a small business owner, he worked for Sen. Olympia Snowe, served as regional administrator of the Small Business Administration and, as a Navy reservist, spent time in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Those varied experiences, Summers said, give him an edge in the Senate race.

Summers said his top priorities are to cut spending and to reduce the national debt. He said he supports the Balanced Budget Amendment, the line-item veto and the repeal of President Barack Obama’s health care initiative.

Summers, 52, said he would cut excessive government regulations “so that businesses large and small can thrive.” He also wants to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education.

Since leaving the Legislature, Summers has run for Congress three times, failing to get his party’s nomination the first time around. He won the GOP nomination in 2004 and was beaten by Democrat Tom Allen in the general election.

In 2008, he won the GOP congressional primary but missed most of the campaign because he was on active duty and deployed to Iraq. That left his wife, Ruth, as his campaign surrogate until his return months before the election, which he lost to U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree.

Summers’ first wife died in a car accident in 1982 after the couple moved to Maine from Illinois, leaving Summers to raise their two children. Summers met Ruth in the Navy Reserve. They have a 2-year-old child together. Ruth Summers is seeking Summers’ previous state Senate seat.