Republican 2nd District U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin lashed out at his Democratic opponent today during a tour of the General Electric Turbine plant in Bangor.
In a speech in which he promoted his job creation strategies and support of small businesses, Poliquin accused former state lawmaker Emily Cain of favoring big government and voting against Maine businesses. Cain says Poliquin needs to check his facts.
The Maine tradition of delaying political attacks on opponents until after Labor Day has pretty much expired in the state’s 2nd Congressional District, where Poliquin is attempting his first re-election bid. During a tour of the GE plant in Bangor, Poliquin called a press conference to accept an endorsement from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for his work to help protect Maine jobs, grow the economy and create a better business climate. Then he let loose on his Democratic challenger Emily Cain.
“My opponent believes government should be bigger, more intrusive, more expensive with more red tape and higher taxes, all of which kill jobs,” Poliquin says.
Poliquin chose a controversial venue for his press event that continues to dog his campaign. The GE plant in Bangor became a flashpoint in last year’s GOP stand-off over congressional reauthorization of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, which provides loans to purchasers of American goods. That authorization lapsed during the debate as Republicans charged that the bank was rife with fraud and pursued policies that undermined the free market.
GE corporate executives had been pushing hard for authorization, but Poliquin and other GOP members opposed procedural votes on Democratic-led initiatives that his staff said were crafted to advance goals that had little or nothing to do with the bank.
When asked about his earlier votes on the issue, Poliquin bristled.
“Wrong, wrong, wrong, I’ll correct you right now, there was one vote on the Ex-Im bank, there was one vote and I voted for the reauthorization,” Poliquin says. “I did this only after I worked tirelessly to root out waste and corruption at the Ex-Im bank. There was no intransigence, we had one vote on the Ex-Im bank. I voted on it. Every job that was here two years ago, year and a half ago are still here right now.”
“He voted to kill the Export-Import Bank eight times, to say otherwise is lying,” Cain says.
Cain says Poliquin not only took positions that threatened the 450 jobs at the GE plant, he actually contributed to a GOP-led debate that wound up costing Bangor 80 jobs at the GE facility.
According to a Reuters report, GE said the reauthorization debate in Congress prompted the company to move 80 proposed jobs for the Bangor plant to a GE facility in France. Cain says Poliquin is trying to rewrite history.
“Because he knows he was on the wrong side of it,” she says. “He’s been called out for it time and again. He’s going to continue to be called out for it time and again. Because he was wrong, and he wasn’t wrong once, he was wrong eight times. That was bad for Maine, there were 80 jobs that should have come to Bangor that didn’t.”
Staffers for Poliquin pointed to a Wall Street Journal report that suggested GE had planned to ship those Bangor jobs to France before the Ex-Im debate broke out in Congress.
Cain today also dismissed Poliquin’s characterization of her record on job creation as inaccurate.