After a decade as a spectator, former Republican 1st District U.S. Rep. David Emery is back in the political spotlight as he seeks a seat in the Maine State Senate.
Emery was recruited to enter the race after another GOP candidate dropped out, but with a political resume that stretches back to the Reagan era, Emery is more than just a fill-in candidate.
In an era of increasingly polarized politics, Emery says he knows that his brand of moderate Republicanism is a throwback to the ’70s, when Republicans such as Bill Cohen and Olympia Snowe set the tone for the GOP in Maine. And maybe, he says, moderation and collaboration are approaches that could serve Republicans at the State House again.
“Clearly you face this, every two years with the budget,” Emery says. “I mean you’ve got people who want to cut programs and eliminate expense and there’s a very real need for that, and there are other people who see needs in social programs and infrastructure improvements, and those two interests always have to come together in a resolution. So we have to find ways to find middle ground.”
The 67-year-old Tenants Harbor resident was first elected to the Maine Legislature in 1970 and went on to serve in Congress from 1977 to 1983. He staged an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in 1982 and lost a three-way GOP primary for governor in 2006.
Should he win his race against incumbent Democratic Sen. David Miramant of Camden, it would be the first time in more than 100 years that a former Maine congressman has been elected to the state Legislature. But Emery says public service is a calling that can be fulfilled at any level of elective office.
“Public service is public service,” Emery said. “You don’t serve in public office merely for the prestige or the size of the desk or the amount of the paycheck, you have to serve where you can be useful.”
Emery says he plans to run as Clean Elections candidate under Maine’s taxpayer-financed campaign program.