Maine Native Showered With Praise for Directing Inaugural Events
ME DELEGATION
Bangor Daily News
Drew FitzGerald
Boston University Washington News Service
Jan. 19, 2009
WASHINGTON – The nation’s capital barely got a dusting of snow Monday, but inside Maine’s unofficial inaugural celebration here, Presidential Inauguration Committee Executive Director Emmett Beliveau was showered with praise.
The Maine native in charge of coordinating the long list of inaugural events taking place here rattled off a list of record-breaking statistics: The Washington Metro set a new Sunday record for rail ridership after the Inauguration’s opening ceremony by carrying more than 660,000 riders. Organizers expect that number to double on Tuesday. More than 80,000 people applied just to volunteer during Tuesday’s parade.
The whistle-stop tour starting in Philadelphia on Saturday also drew record crowds.
“Not only were the trains running on time, but they were ahead of schedule,” Beliveau said.
Beliveau was a celebrity among the political campaigners, lawyers and private businessmen who gathered Monday at the New Zealand embassy to celebrate Barack Obama’s inauguration. But support for the president-elect himself also ran high at an event Beliveau’s father Severin Beliveau, whose law firm helped host the event, jokingly billed as “90-10” bipartisan.
“His talk of being bipartisan and independent fits in well with the Maine political ethic,” Rep. Chellie Pingree told The Bangor Daily News. “He had an early strong support team in Maine, and it just grew.”
Pingree said the U.S. House of Representatives has already passed several pieces of legislation since members were sworn in Jan. 6, but she said lawmakers are “anxious” to see Obama assume office so they can get his feedback on their other proposals. The national economic stimulus package Obama proposed will be the first major order of business, she said.
“It will be a very strong package, because Congress has a strong hand in it,” Pingree said.
In a speech to the crowd, Maine Gov. John Baldacci hearkened back to his own experiences growing up in 1960, when his parents traveled as delegates to the Democratic National Convention where John F. Kennedy was nominated.
“It was an exciting time for him and our family, where a lot of new blood, enthusiasm and young people from all over the world coming together and trying to be this generation’s leaders,” he said. “Barack Obama, he’s tapped into the same network.”
Baldacci attended two inaugurations before this one, but he said they “aren’t going to compare” to the number of spectators from the United States and abroad who will be gathering in Washington and tuning in around the world to see Obama take the oath of office.
“We’re starting at a low point in terms of our relations around the world and in terms of our economy,” he said. “But I think we’re starting it all together.”
Baldacci frequently pointed to the poor economic conditions facing Mainers and all Americans as a heavy burden weighing on an otherwise high-spirited celebration, and pledged to push for federal help and state legislation “to create the kind of one-two punch that can jolt our economy.”
“Celebrations today, and tomorrow work begins anew,” he said.
New Zealand’s ambassador to the United States, Roy Ferguson, explained that the event took place at the embassy partly thanks to his longstanding friendship with Severin Beliveau and his partner at the firm, Simon Leeming.
“What I think is remarkable to outsiders is that you can have such a long election campaign in the United States and it can be very hotly contested, and then on the fourth of November, when the result is known, Americans come together,” Ferguson said. “What we’re celebrating today is really that coming together and that American spirit of optimism.”
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