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home > radio > maine news > news story Maine NewsMcCain Makes Southern Maine Campaign Stops
Republican presidential hopeful John McCain spent the day in Maine on Monday to raise money and drum up support in a state which has gone against the Republican Party in the last four presidential elections. Protestors were on hand this morning as John McCain started his day in Kennebunkport. They chanted "George and Dick make us sick. John McCain, more of the same." A warmer reception awaited the senator inside the Bush family compound at Walker's Point, where former president George H. W. Bush paid tribute to the presidential hopeful, a fellow navy flier. He said, "We are strongly supporting him - we've had very successful fundraisers here - but the main thing is my respect for him knows no bounds, he will be a great president I'm confident of that." After attending a number of private fund-raising events in Kennebunkport, McCain headed to the grounds of the soon-to-be-opened Maine Military Museum in South Portland where hundreds of the Republican Party faithful greeted him. Maine has not backed a Republican candidate for president since the 1980s. McCain wants to reverse this trend. He assured the crowd: "I will compete and win in the state of Maine. I will compete here. I will compete in this state." In order to compete and win, McCain needs to win over many of Maine's political independents. About 39 percent of the electorate is un-enrolled in a party. Onlooker Travis Osgood is among those McCain needs to convince: "I think I'm going to be following both parties pretty closely. I am a conservative but I don't claim affiliation to any party." Most of those present today, like Portland area residents Betty Pomroy and David Alson, are firmly behind John McCain. Pomroy said, "I think he'll make a great president." One of the chief concerns of McCain's opponents in Maine is energy policy. On the eve of McCain's visit, the Maine Democratic Party released a report designed to show the effects his presidency would have on Mainers in particular. One of the key criticisms in that report is McCain's voting record on the issue of fuel assistance funding. Rebecca Pollard of the Maine Democratic Party says McCain has voted repeatedly to slash funding for the Low Income Energy Assistance program, known as LIHEAP. Pollard explains, "The people of Maine are worried sick right now about how they're going to pay for their heating oil bills, and that's really what they're focused on. Unfortunately, the economic policies of John McCain would not help them do that." In his speech John McCain acknowledged the pain that many Americans are feeling due to high oil prices. He says energy independence is the way forward: "My friends we are sending $700 billion a year to countries that don't like us very much, and some of that money ends up in the hands of terrorist organizations. I will end this country's dependence on foreign oil." McCain talked about alternative energy sources, such as wind, tidal power, solar, and nuclear: "We will build 45 new nuclear power plants and that will employ 700,000 people in the next several years." But it was on the subject of Iraq that McCain really took the opportunity to attack his presidential opponent Barack Obama. Addressing a crowd that included a large number of veterans, he said that great sacrifice has been made in Iraq, but the troop surge policy is working: "And my friend Senator Obama said it wouldn't work. He opposed it. He said it would fail, and he refuses, to this day, to acknowledge that it succeeded. My friends that's what judgment is all about. That's why I'm qualified to lead, and I don't need any on-the-job training." McCain's visit is the first by a major party presidential candidate to Maine since he and Democrat Obama locked up their nominations earlier in the year.
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