SOUTH PORTLAND — In what was billed as the first head-to-head debate of the campaign season, candidates hoping to replace Olympia Snowe in the U.S. Senate met Sept. 12 in an invitation-only event at Texas Instruments in South Portland.
However, only former Gov. Angus King, running as an independent, and Secretary of State Charles Summers of Scarborough, the Republican standard bearer, were on hand. Democrat Cynthia Dill of Cape Elizabeth, a member of the Maine Senate, bowed out Tuesday citing a scheduling conflict with a government class she was slated to teach at Southern Maine Community College in South Portland.
Non-party candidates Andrew Ian Dodge, Steve Woods and Danny Dalton were not asked to participate. TI Public Affairs Manager Anne Gauthier said a decision was made in July to exclude any candidate “not polling at least 7 percent.”
The event was co-sponsored by the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Maine Chamber of Commerce and the Manufacturers Association of Maine.
King touted his confidence in an eventual resurgence of manufacturing in Maine. “You can’t build an economy on taking in each other’s laundry. Somebody, somewhere has got to make something,” he said, noting that manufacturing jobs had recently seen the first uptick “in living memory.” Rising costs around the world, he said, coupled with lower energy outlays at home, will keep the needle moving in that direction.
Summers, meanwhile, used his time to reinforce the points he made throughout the debate, that the key to jumpstarting the manufacturing sector is to reign in taxes and regulation.
“If we do those things, this economy will begin to move,” he said. “One of the things that drives me crazy is that we have a political class now that is fond of running around and apologizing for the United States of America, apologizing for our successes, and going after people who are too successful.”
Summers also faulted candidates who propose big ideas on the campaign trail but then don’t produce once elected, or who later make excuses for why government fixes failed to produce the desired result.
“What’s needed,” he said, “is someone who stands for something, whose [life] experience is like your own.”
King’s proposals included creating a “Skills Summit” to boost interest in manufacturing jobs, forgiving a portion of student debt for each year a science or technology graduate spends teaching, “start-up visas” to speed citizenship for foreigners who create a given number of domestic jobs, a natural gas pipeline from the coast through the Kennebec Valley to Skowhegan, and a “territorial tax rate” so companies are only taxed in the country where revenue is earned, in hopes million of dollars parked overseas might flow into the U.S.
King said he supports the Affordable Care Act, known colloquially as “Obamacare,” but is concerned only in “how it will be implemented.” The health care paradigm needs to be turned on its head, he said, to focus on prevention, rather than on treating the sick.
“Under an Accountable Care Organization,” he said, "the insurer would go to the hospital and the docs and say, here’s 10,000 people, here’s $50 million – keep them healthy.”
Summers his goal would be to repeal Obamacare, preferring instead to let people buy health insurance across state lines. Summers also said the cost of health insurance, like home mortgage payments, should be “completely deductible from federal income taxes.”
Summers other new proposal was the creation of a national small-business advocate. The balance of his time was spent beating the drum for lower taxes and less regulatory red tape, or dismissing King’s proposals, such as saying of start-up visas, “We ought to focus on what we can do for our workers so they and their children can have the best education possible, so we don’t have to look beyond our borders.”
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