Andrew Ian Dodge is challenging moderate Maine Republican Senator Olympia Snowe in the 2012 Republican primary. He filed his candidacy just yesterday and we had a chance to chat (quickly and online through Facebook chat) about his ideas and his campaign for Blogcritics readers.
DN: Obviously you're not happy with Senator Snowe's performance and are hoping many others in Maine share your dissatisfaction, but what in particular motivated you to run against her?
AID: The final straw was her voting Obamacare out of committee into a Democrat dominated Senate. Added to that she voted for TARP and all the other stimuli that drove up the debt.
DN: You're running against a long-time incumbent in the Republican primary. Obviously you think Snowe is vulnerable, but how do you plan on breaking through the incumbency advantage?
IAD: By using all modern means at my disposal to attract new voters into the mix. She has never had a primary challenger and she has not had her actions truly questioned. I will bring all means to bear to scrutinize her time in the Senate and the harm she has done to Maine and the country as a whole.
DN: Any Senate campaign is based around national issues and how they are perceived by local voters. What issues do you plan to focus on that will resonate with the people of Maine.
AID: The taxation and regulation that are strangling small business in Maine, whether it is the five new taxes in Obamacare or the over-enthusiastic regulation from the EPA and other federal agencies. Maine's fishing industry is suffering greatly from EPA and other federal agencies' over-zealous actions.
DN: Maine is a state with a lot of non-conformists, but you hardly present the usual image that most people expect in a Republican politician. Is that a weakness or something you can use to your advantage?
AID: I believe it is something I can use to my advantage to attract those who have been wary of the political process due to the "cookie cutter" aspect of politicians on both sides of the aisle. I am truly an example of the original intent of the Founding Fathers that our legislators are "gentlemen" rather than professional politicians. I have not spent my entire life climbing up the greasy poll for my "chance" to run for Senate. My principles and core values have not changed since I was in college (or earlier) I have just gotten much better at articulating them.
DN: You mention college. You went to Colby in Maine, but went to graduate school in England. Do you think that having lived overseas gives you useful insights which many of our legislators lack?
Article comments
1 - Glenn Contrarian
Well, we can certainly see that intellectualism is not real high on Dodge's list of qualities on his resume. But I'm glad he's unable to keep his extremism out of his normal conversation - otherwise the people of Maine might not be able to see what a problem this guy would be if he were elected to office.
2 - RJ
Dave, you might want to fix the link to Andrew's website.
3 - Dr Dreadful
"I have just gotten much better at articulated them."
Could've fooled me...
4 - Costello
Get yourself somebody in PR or communications becuase this is a horrendous read. Hard to believe anyone would take you serious as a writer let alonea US Senator
5 - Alan Kurtz
Re #3 and #4: please clarify something. Whom are you criticizing for this article's bad writing, spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, etc.? This is an interview with Andrew Ian Dodge, written not by him but by the interviewer. Dave Nalle is therefore solely responsible for such slips as "I have just gotten much better at articulated them." Why blame Mr. Dodge?
6 - Dr Dreadful
Well, since Dave is based in Texas and Andrew Dodge in Maine, I'm guessing this interview took place via e-mail or live chat rather than in person. In that case the responses as reproduced would be Mr Dodge's own. I could, of course, be wrong.
7 - Alan Kurtz
#6, haven't you heard of the telephone? It's an instrument that enables people to speak with another entirely free of the Internet! Oh, and there's also something called a tape recorder that allows such conversations to be preserved for subsequent transcription. What'll they think of next?
8 - Alan Kurtz
Moreover, whatever medium was used to conduct the interview, the writer/editor--in this case, Mr. Nalle--is solely responsible for either (a) correcting obvious mistakes of spelling, grammar, punctuation, word usage, etc. or (b) employing "[sic]" to identify errors in the original that the writer wishes to leave intact.
9 - El Bicho
Odd that there's no mention that this is longtime BC contributor Marty Dodge.
Considering Dave doesn't appear to use ampersands in his writing, it's much more likely they went Dread's route than Alan's.
And Dave wouldn't be solely responsible if I were seriously running for national office. A follow-up by myself or someone working for me to see how I came across and to see that Dave didn't edit me in a way that reflected poorly seems natural course of business.
10 - Alan Kurtz
Whoa! Are you suggesting that Dodge contrived a piece of badly written campaign literature, which Dave slapped his own name on and posted as if it truly were what it claims to be: an interview? I don't know how to say this, exactly, but ain't that just a tad dishonest?
11 - handyguy
I think Snowe [and Collins] should switch parties anyway. They would be "moderate Democrats" just as effectively as they are "moderate Republicans." While we're at it, Ben Nelson of Nebraska should switch to the GOP. They would all be more comfy and at home that way.
12 - Dave Nalle
Handy, there is a certain amount of party switching going on and I suspect there will be more in the next couple of years.
Dave