In Maine, U.S. senators usually retire rather than being defeated for re-election. True, there are exceptions, but you have to go back to 1978 to find one.
That year, Bill Cohen defeated William Hathaway, ending a unique six-year period in which two Democrats represented Maine in the Senate. Hathaway had upset Margaret Chase Smith in 1972, after she had been paired with Ed Muskie for 14 years.
Since then, such prominent senators as Muskie, George Mitchell, Cohen and Olympia Snowe have all left of their own accord.
So it would be accurate to say that Shenna Bellows, who’s looking to oust Susan Collins, an 18-year veteran, faces the tallest of uphill battles this fall. Yet she has advantages that previous Collins opponents lacked.
She’s young, she’s untarnished by endless political battles, and she comes from a family and community background that’s light years away from the typical Senate hopeful.
When I caught up to her, she had just finished a three-week, 350-mile walk across Maine, starting in Houlton and ending in Kittery, passing through Island Falls, Medway, Mattawamkeag, Unity, Fairfield, West Gardiner, Mechanic Falls, Sanford and dozens of other towns along the way — 63 in all.
Campaign walks are, of course, a Republican tradition, started by Cohen when he was elected to the 2nd District Hathaway gave up in 1972.
Bellows seems to have learned from previous examples,which include 1st District Congressman Dave Emery and Sen. Snowe. Collins opted for a three-week bus trip instead.
Cohen had to visit an emergency room after his street shoes produced painful blisters. Bellows learned to use the latest in Maine-made, New Balance technology, and changed shoes frequently. She also learned that newly-paved asphalt is the trickiest surface, especially after it rains.
Along the way, she talked to hundreds of people and stayed with numerous families — another tradition Muskie began when he first
ran for governor in 1954.
The experience has helped reorient her campaign. When she announced last fall, her issues included the national security overkill represented by the Patriot Act, and Collins’ ambivalent stance about marriage equality.
Those are important issues, but not where most Mainers live and vote.
On her walk, Bellows met young married couples who were still living with parents years after college graduation. They work, but can’t afford a place of their own because of crushing student loan debt.
She found many people who once had mill jobs and other well-paid employment working two or three jobs, and scraping by on minimum wage. These are Mainers who rarely complain, but seemingly have lost any chance of living as well as their parents’ generation.
“I never thought I’d be going to a food pantry,” a middle-aged woman in Island Falls told her — but then the starch mill closed down.
And she found many, many rural residents whose only income is Social Security — it’s a third of the retired population in Maine.
Bellows has a plan to deal with these issues.
She says Congress needs to lower student loan rates, which are now higher than auto loan rates, and allow comprehensive refinancing, something Republicans have been blocking.
There needs to be a higher minimum wage, and she thinks the $10.10 proposed by President Obama is reasonable.
And she thinks Social Security benefits, particularly for those most in need, need to be increased, paid for by eliminating the cap on contributions that benefits upper income wage earners.
Bellows points out that Collins does not support any of these proposals, though her office says some unspecified minimum wage increase is OK, and some agreement on students loans should be made. But her party has blocked even minor changes from even being considered.
Bellows draws the contrast between candidates exactly where it should be. By shifting the debate to “welfare,” some candidates expect to channel residual anger and resentment over the Great Recession away from needed reforms to create a new floor under middle class and retired Americans.
The comments she’s appreciated most have been the response to this approach. “You’re one of us,” she often hears. “We don’t have a voice in Washington. Only the wealthiest do.”
And she observes, “This is about the future of the country. The status quo is not going to change unless we make it change.”
Patiently, calmly, Shenna Bellows is making the case that we can do a lot more, and that if you agree, you should vote for her.
It may be that more voters are listening than we imagine.
Douglas Rooks is a former daily and weekly newspaper editor who has covered the State House for 29 years. He can be reached at drooks@tds.net.
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