PORTLAND, Maine – In one of the largest efforts of its kind, CUNA has spent almost $113,000 over the past five days on independent mailings on behalf of Democrat Adam Cote, an Iraq war hero running in next week’s Democratic primary for Maine’s 1st District House seat.
Cote, a life-long member of York County FCU, has endorsed the credit union tax exemption. He has received the endorsement of the Maine CU League, which has been bringing him to meet and greet at credit unions throughout the state. The Maine league, which is not involved in the independent campaign launched by CUNA, has only endorsed one other candidate in a House primary ever – Democrat Mike Michaud, a long-time credit union director who won election to the House in 2002.
Cote is a staff judge advocate for the Maine Army National Guard and served in Bosnia and Iraq with the National Guard and Reserves, most recently from 2004-2005 in Mosul as a platoon leader. He prepared troops and led more than 100 convoys. He also started the Adopt an Iraqi Village Program. The program, for which he received two Army Commendation Medals, collects and distributes school supplies and toys to Iraqi children.
CUNA has used independent expenditures such as this one successfully several times before, most prominently on behalf of Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, when he lost the Democratic primary, only to win a third term running as an independent. CUNA spent almost $250,000 on mailings for Lieberman in the days before the Democratic primary and again before the general election.
Lieberman, who by law was not aware of the CUNA effort at the time, has reciprocated by introducing CURIA – the CU Regulatory Improvements Act – in the Senate.
But the Cote initiative differs from all of CUNA’s other independent expenditures, which were made on behalf of candidates who had tangible records of credit union support in the state legislature or in Congress.
Richard Gose, political director for CUNA, was reluctant to discuss the independent expenditures yesterday because under law neither a candidate nor his campaign may know about them. He acknowledged that the expenditures paid for mailings to thousands of Maine voters on behalf of Cote in the days before next Tuesday’s primary.
The mailings are being coordinated by Compass Media Groups Inc. of Chicago, which coordinated the Lieberman mailings, also.
Cote is running against four other Democrats in the seat being vacated by Democrat Tom Allen, who after six House terms is running for the Senate seat held by Republican Susan Collins. CUNA also has made a $5,000 contribution to Cote’s campaign, separate from the independent campaign assistance.
Collins, who joined her fellow Maine Sen. Olympia Snow in signing on to the Senate’s version of CURIA yesterday – just the third and fourth senators to do so – has the support of CUNA and the Maine league.
