PORTLAND, Maine – A surreptitious campaign by CUNA on behalf of Iraq war hero Adam Cote in tomorrow’s Democratic primary for Maine’s 1st District House seat has raised the ire of the other five candidates in the race and the state’s bankers, all of whom learned of the initiative from last week’s report in the Credit Union Journal Daily Briefing.
Joe Petroski, president of the Maine Bankers Association, cried foul and sent a message to all members of the Maine legislature claiming the independent mailing by CUNA on behalf of Cote in the final days before the primary has changed the dynamics of the campaign. In his message, the banking lobbyist claimed credit unions are seeking to continue their tax exemptions, their exemptions from the Community Reinvestment Act and “to be able to expand their banking services to include full business and commercial lending.” The bankers have not endorsed any candidate in the six-way race.
The effort upset some of Cote’s opponents, who rued such a large contribution from an out-of-state interest group.
CUNA spent $135,665 on six mailings leading up to the primary, a so-called independent expenditure that neither the Cote campaign nor CUNA’s local affiliate, the Maine CU League, was notified of, under campaign law. The amount spent by CUNA is almost a fourth of the $553,000 spent on the primary by Cote’s campaign.
CUNA made the unusual effort on behalf of Cote because the candidate, a life-long member of York County FCU, has expressed support for the credit union tax exemption, winning him the endorsement of the Maine league.
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.
The winner of Tuesday's primary will face the winner of the two-way Republican primary race between Charlie Summers and Dean Scontras in the Nov. 4 general election.
Democratic Rep. Tom Allen, who currently represents the 1st District, is running against Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
CUNA has used independent expenditures such as this one successfully several times before, most prominently on behalf of Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman after he lost the Democratic primary, only to win his 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, 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.
