Category: Jenna Wolf
Incumbents Rule Money Roost
By Jenna Wolf
WASHINGTON- Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Me.), who will face off against Republican Brian Hamel in the second district this fall, has raked in more than $500,000 for his first reelection campaign, according to the Federal Election Commission.
Hamel announced his candidacy last month and is not required to report campaign contributions to the FEC until March. Incumbents usually raise more money than challengers and are difficult to defeat, but Hamel said he is “confident” he will be able to “raise enough money and win this campaign.”
Michaud, former president of the state Senate, first was elected to Congress in 2002, when he narrowly defeated Republican Kevin Raye.
Hamel is the president and chief executive officer of the Loring Development Authority, which works to restore jobs lost when Loring Air Force Base closed in 1994. While Hamel has just begun to solicit funds from individuals and groups, Michaud finished 2003 with more than $300,000 in cash on hand, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-profit organization that examines campaign finances.
Michaud has received nearly two-thirds of his campaign money from political action committees, or PACs, primarily from labor unions. A former mill worker, Michaud received $123,750 from unions, more than one-third of the $341,509 he got from all PACs, according to the FEC.
Michaud’s top contributor is AmeriPAC: The Fund for a Greater America, a Democratic leadership PAC sponsored by Rep. Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland , the second-highest ranking Democrat in the House. AmeriPAC has given Michaud $10,500, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
“I support Mike because he is one of the strongest voices in the House of Representatives for protecting American workers and jobs,” Hoyer said in a statement. “Because of his job with the Great Northern Paper Mill, he has seen first-hand the struggles of his constituents and the harmful effects of Republican economic policies on his district.”
Rep. Tom Allen, who will be running for a fourth term, is likely to face Republican Charlie Summers, who has not officially announced his candidacy, according to Maine political officials. Dottie Melanson, chairwoman of the Maine Democratic Party, said Summers had been circulating campaign papers in the district.
Summers is an aide to Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Me.) and was a member of the Maine state Senate for two terms, from 1992 to 1994. In 1994, he ran for Congress and placed second in the GOP primary. The winner, Jim Longley Jr., served one term in Congress before losing to Allen in the next election.
If Summers does contest Allen’s seat, he is not required to submit financial reports to the FEC until the spring.
As of Dec. 31, Allen had raised $278,257 and had $172,132 cash on hand, the FEC reported. He has received nearly two-thirds of his money — $183,134 — from individuals, as opposed to PACs.
Like Michaud, Allen has received significant PAC contributions — $38,500 — from labor unions, according to a breakdown by the Center for Responsive Politics. His top contributor was the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which gave him $5,000. The business sector gave Allen $34,554, and lawyers and lobbyists gave him $18,500.
During the 2002 election, Allen outspent his Republican opponent Steven Joyce substantially. He spent more than $500,000, four times more than Joyce, and won 64 percent of the vote. In each of his four elections, he has outspent every Republican challenger and beaten each in a landslide.
Maine Community Colleges Fearful Funding Cuts Will Halt Program Improvements
By Jenna Wolf
WASHINGTON -Despite President Bush's pledge to provide additional federal funds for the nation's community colleges, his budget proposes to cut a major federal program for those colleges by an estimated 25 percent.
Maine 's community colleges stand to lose millions of dollars under the President's plan at a time when the state is experiencing a substantial increase in community college enrollment.
In addition to cutting the funds for the Carl D. Perkins grant program from about $1.3 billion to $1 billion, Bush's proposed budget also calls for revamping the way Washington distributes the money for the program, which provides financial support for local vocational-technical education programs and services.
Currently, the funds go to the states under a fixed formula; under the proposal, the Perkins grants would be replaced by a new program called the Secondary Technical Excellence Education Act (Sech Tech) and the money would be distributed on a competitive basis.
Over the past three years, 14,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost in Maine , and the state's community colleges are trying to provide programs to train students for careers in new economic sectors, particularly technology.
"It's a frustrating place to be in when you see jobs lost, particularly in industries, that students want," said Alicia Kirkpatrick, a spokeswoman for the Maine Community College System. "This year we might get slammed on both sides--from the state and federal government--which is a big concern for us because there are growing industries and we just need the capacity to allow more students in and develop more programs in areas that don't exist."
Maine 's seven community colleges have expanded rapidly in recent years. Last fall, almost 12,000 credit-seeking students enrolled, an increase of 15 percent over the previous fall and 57 percent since 1993.
In 2003, Maine community colleges received $2.5 million in basic Carl D. Perkins grants. They also received $500,000 for their Tech Prep program, , which is intended to improve technical education in more than 300 industry programs offered by the colleges.
Rep. Tom Allen (D-M.E.), said the proposed cuts will "hit students personally."
"Here is an example of the administration saying one thing and doing another," Allen said in an interview. "It's absolutely amazing to me that this administration continues to claim that they're enhancing education while they reduce funding. We need to first stop the harm and then increase the funding for education in general."
Bush, in his State of the Union speech, proposed more federal money for community colleges "so they can train workers for industries that are creating the most new jobs." However, Betty Krump, executive director of the American Technical Education Association, said the President's proposed budget would put "technical education behind about 15 years.
"If we want a workforce prepared for a widely diverse job market, career and technical education must begin early to create easy transition into the post-secondary level for the most detailed, and most expensive technical preparation," she said. "It is most common that employers hire workers who have technical skills over those who do not."
Chad Kolton, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, said the President has "dedicated significant parts of his budget proposal to improving community college education" and feels it "plays a critical role in training workers for industries across the country and certainly in places like Maine ." But, he said, the administration has no details on its proposals to help community colleges.
The state has experienced dislocation in its manufacturing sector, and the community college system "often leads to good-paying jobs and helps to ensure we have a skilled workforce," Sen. Susan Collins (R.-Me.) said in a statement. Collins said she did not support the administration's proposal to eliminate the Carl D. Perkins grants and shift the money to competitive grants. Kirkpatrick said, however, that "it just takes money to create these programs and get them into regions where they don't already exist."
Rep. Michael Michaud (D-Me.), said in a statement that he "fully supports" Bush's Jobs for the 21 st Century initiative, a proposal to help secondary and post-secondary schools train workers for new types of jobs. But, he said, "the President is proposing a 24 percent cut to vocational education. There is a real mismatch here between the rhetoric and what is actually being delivered."
The administration's Kolton said the money Bush is proposing would give grants to the "most effective" community college programs around the country and provide "resources to those programs that produce the best results" in training students to enter the workforce.
While most community college students are fresh out of high school, more than 760 Maine students last spring were dislocated workers, representing one in 10 across the state.
The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), meeting in Washington last week, said it hopes to receive $1.4 billion under the Perkins basic state grant program. This is a key source of funds for workforce development programs at the community colleges.
The Maine Quality Centers Program, an economic development initiative, has helped 182 companies expand their operations in Maine , creating a projected 9,141 new jobs for Maine residents. So far, more than 8,000 residents have been hired through the program, at an average wage of $10.60 per hour, with full benefits.
"Under the new program we want to try and take the best practices and make them the norm rather than the exception," said Hans Meeder, deputy assistant director of vocational education for the U.S. Education Department. "It's a way to get rid of all of the duplication programs to make funding more effective."
Perkins funds are distributed through the Maine Department of Education. Over the past five years, the department divided the funds evenly between secondary and post-secondary technical education. But some community college officials worry that the Bush proposal would put up for grabs all federal money that goes to community colleges and high school technology programs.
Kirkpatrick said Perkins funds have been "fairly predictable in the past" and pointed out that while Bush proposed cutting these same funds in his budget last year, Congress overrode the proposal and Maine received the money it needed to improve its technology programs. She added that the health care training programs in particular have a "huge impact" on Maine , with one-third of the graduates of registered nursing programs in the state each year having earned their degrees at community colleges.
"We're working very hard to develop programs in expanding fields like health care," Kirkpatrick said. "If funding comes in terms of a competitive grant process, Maine could be a loser because we're a small state."
Maine was one of only three states that did not increase tuition at community colleges this year. But, like most other states, it is under increasing fiscal pressure to raise tuition.
"We want to make sure that the schools that are the neediest get very fair opportunities to get money," Meeder said. "We don't want only the wealthiest schools getting all the money. It needs to be equitable."
