Cianchette vs. Mills (so far) The Republican fight for the 2006 gubernatorial nomination is shaping up to offer real choice BY LANCE TAPLEY
	What about Rick Bennett, et al? The 2006 Republican gubernatorial contest still could feature the brainy school-activist type (Peter Mills) and the smooth class-president type (Peter Cianchette) against another class-president type who, some Republicans believe, is both smooth and brainy — let’s call him the student-council-president type: Richard Bennett, the former State Senate president. He says he hasn’t decided whether to run, but he is "seriously mulling it" and talking it over with his family. He talks of "a leadership vacuum in Augusta generally." He describes himself as fiscally conservative, pro-choice, and anti-gambling. He opposed the gay-rights bill because "we don’t need a category that can only be defined by behavior." The same day Cianchette said he was in, David Emery, the former First District congressman who had announced he was running only a few weeks previous, said he was out. "He’s the presumptive heir," Emery said of Cianchette while he was considering whether to withdraw. Now he supports him. What of Kevin Hancock? "I was so close to running I can’t even describe it," says the man who manages the Hancock Lumber chain. But he changed his mind about the time Cianchette decided to get in, and he is supporting him. He is eager to leave the impression that, at 39, he plans to run for high office at some point. What about Paul Davis? "I never was in," the conservative Senate minority leader from up country (Sangerville) says, though he was considering running. Now he, too, is supporting Cianchette. Darlene Curley, a state representative from Scarborough, let it be known early on that she might seek the nomination, apparently if no more redoubtable candidate wanted it. A phone conversation with this reporter about her candidacy went this way: "I’m still considering it at this point." "It looks pretty certain that Peter Cianchette is going to run." "Do you know when he’s going to announce?" "I think it’ll be in a couple of days." "If he runs, I’ll be supporting him." There also is someone named Stephen Stimpson of Bangor who has taken out nomination papers as a Republican. Nancy Oden of Jonesboro, an environmental activist, is running as an independent. The Green Independent Party will field a candidate. Most bets now are on Pat LaMarche, who ran for governor in 1998 and was the national Green vice-presidential nominee last year. Oh, yes, and John Elias Baldacci of Augusta has announced he will run as a Democrat. No other Democrat has surfaced in the primary race. _LT

Looked at in high-school terms, the Republican primary race for governor, jolted into life by John Baldacci’s dive in the polls, pits a smooth, friendly class-president type, hesitant to be specific, against an intellectual activist full of nervous energy who has a 12-point plan for revamping the school.

That is, the race so far pits Peter Cianchette against Peter Mills.

Or maybe it’s more like a rematch of the 2000 Republican presidential primary, with Cianchette as the Maine version of George W. Bush, the slightly politically experienced, generally conservative, guarded-but-personable scion of a very rich, influential family. His opponent, State Senator Mills, is perhaps the Maine version of United States Senator John McCain, the independent, maverick Vietnam vet — conservative in some things, progressive in others — who risks putting his foot in his mouth with his candor.

Whatever the correct metaphor, the guy to beat is Cianchette. Like George W. Bush in 2000, he is the establishment candidate. He was in charge of Bush’s re-election campaign in Maine last year, and now he is up for re-election himself within the GOP, even though he lost the 2002 gubernatorial general election to Democrat Baldacci (and Cianchette’s man Bush lost Maine in 2004). He has the big advantage of a former gubernatorial nominee, name recognition — about 75 percent of Maine people know his name, according to a poll disclosed off-the-record by one politician. He has so much potential financial support that he has decided not to run as a publicly funded Clean Election candidate.

As testimony to Cianchette’s pre-eminence, several proto-campaigns wilted rapidly around the time, July 28, that he got the word out he was going to run again. One candidate appeared to withdraw from the race even as this reporter spoke with her [see "What about Rick Bennet, et al?," this page].

CIANCHETTE THE "INCUMBENT"

Cianchette, 44, who lives in South Portland, comes from the business world, which seems to shape his perspective. He runs the Cianchette Group, a business and public-affairs consulting firm. He’s a partner in an investment company. Previously, he worked for Dragon Products, a cement and concrete manufacturer, and he was with the consulting firm attached to the big Pierce Atwood law firm (as was, until recently, Robert Baldacci, the governor’s brother), which is active in Augusta lobbying. But he also served two terms in the Maine House in the 1990s, and he is Maine’s Republican national committeeman. He has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Maine.

His family, the Cianchettes of Pittsfield, one of Maine’s wealthiest, founded Cianbro, the state’s largest construction company. His uncles Carl and Alton "Chuck" Cianchette were both state senators.

"We owe back the opportunities the family was provided," says Peter’s oldest brother, Tom, who works in the auto-parts business and lives in Hartland. He describes his brother as "what you see is what you get" — honest, hard-working, even-tempered.

The close-knit family’s public life started with the first generation, says Tom — with Ralph Cianchette, who emigrated from Italy in 1912 at 12 years old. He served as Somerset County sheriff and ran for other public offices.

Ralph was a Democrat, and so were Carl and Chuck. Tom says President Reagan’s communication of conservative ideals in the 1980s resonated with the third Cianchette generation and explains why Peter and he are Republicans.

Although Peter Cianchette has a platform from his 2002 race, he resists specifying his 2006 gubernatorial stands until, he says, he "formally" announces in the early fall. He sees Peter Mills "compelled by the same things" to run for governor as he is, such as the need for property-tax relief; he calls the governor’s increase of funds to the schools earlier this year "a sham" in respect to property-tax reduction. He believes Baldacci’s Dirigo Health Plan "is not working." And he recites part of the Republican catechism: "State spending is out of control."

Pressed on a few more specifics, he says he would not end, as Mills would, the system in which many corporations get BETR payments from the state (the Business Equipment Tax Rebate program) to offset property taxes the municipality excuses them from paying. This system is known as "double-dipping" in State House lingo, but Cianchette calls it "dual benefits." He criticizes Baldacci and legislative Democrats for reducing by 10 percent the BETR tax breaks this year in order to balance the budget.

Like most prominent Maine politicians regardless of party, he is relatively liberal on social issues. He supports a woman’s right to have an abortion, he says, though with "a number of restrictions." He notes his past support in the Legislature for a gay-rights bill, although he says for the Legislature and governor to fashion a gay-rights law without putting it out to referendum, as they did this year, is "an absolute disregard of the will of the people." It will go to statewide referendum in November because opponents collected over 50,000 signatures for a "people’s veto."

Although Cianchette strongly insists this is not the time for him to discuss issues, he made available a brochure from his previous campaign that lays out some particulars, such as an increase in funds for tourism promotion, support for charter schools, support for an East-West highway, regionalization of school administration, and a number of measures that would restrict state spending and, he pledged, reduce taxes [see "Peter Cianchette’s 8 pledges in 2002," on page 3 of this document]. He promoted a constitutional amendment to require a two-thirds legislative vote to raise taxes, and like Baldacci in 2002 he pledged not to raise taxes. He supported enterprise zones to give tax breaks to businesses setting up shop in them; they look a lot like Baldacci’s Pine Tree Zones.