CHELLIE PINGREE (D-ME) FOR HOUSE
Chellie Pingree is running for an open seat in Maine's 1st Congressional District with a very impressive resume. After launching several small businesses, Pingree was elected in 1992 to the Maine State Senate. In 1996, her peers selected her as Senate Majority Leader. In this position, Pingree sponsored one of the first prescription drug pricing bills, a model for other legislation across the country.
Pingree left the Maine Senate after four terms because of state term limits. In 2002, she challenged U.S. Senator Susan Collins. She lost this race to the popular incumbent, while strongly opposing the impending invasion of Iraq, a courageous position at that time.
Pingree then moved to Washington, D.C. to serve as President and Chief Executive Officer at the progressive advocacy group Common Cause. During the four years of her leadership, Common Cause was a leading voice for campaign finance reform among other progressive issues.
When Rep. Tom Allen (D) announced that he was leaving the House of Representatives to mount a challenge against Susan Collins, Pingree became the leading candidate for his seat. She won a decisive victory in a six-way primary in June and now faces former State Representative and Iraq war veteran Charlie Summers (R) in the general election.
Pingree is an experienced legislator with nuanced views on national security issues:
"Too often our foreign policy and national security decisions have been motivated by ideology, and executed by private contractors who lack accountability. This has resulted in us becoming less secure, not more."
"To begin making sensible choices, we should adopt an integrated security budget that covers all of our national security efforts in the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security, and the State Department. For example, under our current system, the Pentagon spends tens of billions of dollars on a missile defense system of questionable value while the Department of Homeland Security struggles to find the necessary funds to adequately secure our ports. By unifying the national security budgets we can take a rational approach toward setting our priorities."
Pingree is favored to win in November, but Summers is mounting a strong campaign against her.
