By David Farmer,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – State Sen. Chandler Woodcock received some late help in his victory over two other Republicans in the party’s June 13 primary.

According to a campaign finance report filed with the state’s ethics commission, John Linnehan of Ellsworth spent more than $1,500 on automated telephone calls in the last days of the race.

Linnehan said that Woodcock was unaware of the phone calls.

Beyond the phone calls, there’s a web of interconnected people and groups whose independent efforts likely helped Woodcock’s cause and who have in common a desire to more closely align government with what they describe as biblical principles.

Woodcock defeated state Sen. Peter Mills of Skowhegan and former U.S. Rep. Dave Emery for the nomination. Woodcock is widely considered the most conservative of the three although he has tried to avoid the label during the campaign. He’s pro-life, opposed to the state’s new anti-discrimination law and he has said he favors teaching intelligent design and creationism in public schools.

Unofficial results show that Woodcock won 26,851 votes to Mills’ 24,492 and Emery’s 18,183.

Woodcock was the only gubernatorial candidate who received third-party help during the primary, according to ethics commission disclosures.

Linnehan, reached at his home on Tuesday, said that the calls cost about 3 cents each and were made to Republicans in Hancock, Penobscot, Washington and Aroostook counties on June 9 and 12. In all, about 50,000 calls were made supporting Woodcock on the two days.

Linnehan said he used no formal script, but the calls had to be kept shorter than 30 seconds.

“I basically said that as a businessman and a grandfather I’m concerned about the direction of the state, and that I was supporting Chandler Woodcock,” Linnehan said.

Woodcock accepted public financing for his campaign as a Maine Clean Election Act candidate and is prohibited from accepting contributions beyond initial seed money gifts or coordinating with third-party groups who spend money on his behalf.

According to Woodcock’s campaign manager, Chris Jackson, the senator learned of the calls only after they were made and played no part in them.

Linnehan is well-known in Hancock County, where he ran an unsuccessful race for the state Senate in 2004 against Democrat Dennis Damon and is currently the chairman of the county Republican Party. In the race, Linnehan spent almost $200,000 trying to defeat the incumbent. He owns a large car dealership and financing company. In 2002, he reached a settlement with the state’s attorney general over allegations that he improperly repossessed and resold cars his company had financed. Linnehan did not admit any wrongdoing and paid a penalty of $40,000 plus $11,000 in attorney fees, according to the AG’s office.

He and his family have been reliable supporters of Republican candidates, party organizations and conservative causes.

Linnehan also has connections to an organization called the Maine Jeremiah Project, which was founded by Bob Emrich, the chief of staff for Republicans in the state Senate. The Maine Jeremiah Project registered as a nonprofit corporation with the Secretary of State on April 14, with state Rep. Josh Tardy, R-Newport, as the registered agent. Tardy is the assistant minority leader for Republicans in the Maine House of Representatives.

The group is part religion and part politics. According to its Web site, the Maine Jeremiah Project seeks to dispel the myth that church and state should be separate and to promote a system of governance based on the word of the Bible and Protestant evangelical interpretations of its meanings.

According to Emrich, Tardy isn’t involved in the Maine Jeremiah Project, although he’s obviously aware that it exists. Emrich described Tardy as a friend who helped him file the necessary paperwork to establish the organization.

The name of the group is taken from Jeremiah 29:7, which in some translations says: “Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you … and pray to the Lord on its behalf.”

In writings on the Web site, Emrich makes clear that he would like to tear down the walls that separate government from religion and that seeking the welfare of the city means becoming involved in politics.

“The foundational thinking of our society and government was built upon assumptions of morality and religion. That does not mean we are, or should be a theocracy. Nor does it mean that government should promote one denomination over another. But it does mean that we have long held to a standard of faith and morality to guide us,” Emrich wrote.

Speaking from his cell phone Tuesday, Emrich said the Maine Jeremiah Project was a loose coalition of about 200 people and groups who are committed to stirring an interest in public policy and teaching people how to become involved in politics. The mission also includes teaching religious leaders about what activities the law allows for nonprofit religious groups. Churches that become too political can risk their tax-advantaged status.

“The church still has a role to play in government and people of faith shouldn’t be intimidated to voice their opinions,” Emrich said.

In March, Linnehan was a major financial supporter of a gathering of about 35 pastors and their wives in Bar Harbor that was organized by Emrich, who is also pastor of the Emmanuel Bible Baptist Church in Plymouth, and Charla Bansley, the state director for the Concerned Women for America of Maine, another religiously oriented group with interest in public policy.

CWA focuses its efforts on six core issues, which “we have determined need biblical principles most and where we can have the greatest impact. At its root, each of these issues is a battle over worldviews,” the group writes on its Web site. The six issues are: limiting marriage to heterosexual couples; opposing abortion; changing public education to include religious education and school choice; fighting pornography and obscenity; protecting “God-given” rights of individuals to pray, worship and express their beliefs; and protecting national sovereignty, which includes opposition to the United Nations and closed national borders.

Linnehan underwrote the event along with other smaller donors from Maine, which allowed the pastors and their wives to attend, stay at the Atlantic Oakes by the Sea Hotel and have dinner at no cost.

“I think Christians have kind of separated themselves from the political process,” Linnehan said. “My connection to the Jeremiah Project or Concerned Women is to get Christians involved.”

Echoing the themes expressed by the Maine Jeremiah Project and CWA, Linnehan said that the government has drifted away from the biblical principles that guided the United States at its founding.

The speaker for the event was Bob Knight, the director of the Culture and Family Institute, and affiliate of Concerned Women for America. Knight is a leading Christian conservative pundit and former journalist who has been heavily involved in the national movement to pass the Defense of Marriage Act and a federal constitutional amendment limiting marriage to heterosexual couples.

According to an audio interview with Knight on the CWA Web site, he spoke to the Maine pastors about the importance of becoming political leaders and fighting against policies – like Maine’s recently passed law to expand its Human Rights Act to include sexual orientation – that contradict the Christian tradition..

On Dec. 31, 2005, Emrich made an $85 in-kind contribution to Woodcock’s gubernatorial campaign. Woodcock’s Web site also lists Emrich as a sign captain and when a person signed up to receive campaign updates earlier this week, the request is sent to [email protected].

Emrich described his role on the Woodcock campaign as a volunteer, who sometimes offered policy advice to the candidate and counseled him on the best terminology to use when talking about some controversial issues, such as abortion. He also said that he did some volunteer computer work for the campaign.

“I’ve known him for quite a while,” Emrich said. “And I asked what I could do to help.”

The Woodcock campaign also said that Emrich was a volunteer, and campaign manager Jackson said he was not familiar with the Maine Jeremiah Project.

Linnehan, in addition to his financial support of the March event, has provided significant money to the Hancock County Republican Committee. According to disclosures filed with the ethics commission, which is formally called the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices, he provided the party committee with more than $33, 500 in loans and in-kind contributions in 2005.

Of his loans to the county party, Linnehan said he’s trying to provide the seed money necessary to build an effective and self-sufficient organization. Most of the loans made in 2005 were forgiven, Linnehan said, and he expects the same again this year.

Emrich said that he learned of Linnehan’s telephone calls only after receiving one of them at his house, and that there was no coordination between the Maine Jeremiah Project and the third-party expenditure.

According to Emrich, the Maine Jeremiah Project ran an informal get-out-the-vote effort on Election Day that used personal contacts among members and e-mail to encourage like minded people to vote.

“We encouraged our members to vote,” Emrich said, “and they took that into their churches and organizations and circles of influence.”

Emrich said that his group has never endorsed a candidate and has no interest in doing so in the future. He also said the project’s get-out-the-vote effort did not encourage support of a particular candidate.

“I don’t know much about the organization. I’m not sure what kind of impact it might have had,” Jackson said.

Asked how he manages to keep his various roles separate, Emrich said that he is confident that he has followed the law and that if any questions are raised, it would take only minor changes to conform to any legal requirements.

“My position working for the Senate Republicans and working as a volunteer for Chandler Woodcock makes me much more conscious of where the lines are,” he said. “When I’m standing before the people of the Jeremiah Project, I know what’s appropriate. … I know where to draw those lines. When I step into the pulpit on Sunday morning, I’m not a Republican.”

“In my mind, they all fit together, but they’re also very different,” Emrich said.

The Maine Jeremiah Project will hold “A Call to Intercede” tonight at the Ellsworth City Hall Auditorium. The event, which the group says is intended to bring Christians together to pray for repentance, “the revival of our churches and the renewal of our culture,” will begin at 7 p.m.