Swing State Swing: Maine

We asked our chief political writer, David Paul Kuhn, to get in a car and drive from Portland, Maine to Portland, Ore., via all the Battleground States – those states expected to be the most hotly contested in the presidential election. Armed with a pen, laptop, camera and plenty of No Doz, Kuhn is sending back dispatches that will offer impressions and snapshots of a country making up its mind.

Portland

Just off the plane in Portland, Maine. Just beginning the 23 days through 19 swing states, Mohammad Nabi asked me for 50 cents. I could not leave the airport without handing this over, the first of many tolls ahead.

Mohammad was patient. He answered the "who's he voting for" question. Democratic nominee John Kerry has Nabi's support.

After 20 years in the United States, Mohammad refrained from voting in the past, he explains, his groomed black hair fading into his dark booth.

Why now? He answers: "The politician change, we have to change the government. Foreign policy is very bad right now, so hopefully John Kerry will change everything," he says, wearing an orange vest, the hum of the highway behind him.

"I never trusted politician before," he says, "because of where I came from." Mohammad was born in Afghanistan.

Roy "Bud" Perkins is a lobsterman. His father was a lobsterman. His father's father was a lobsterman. At 76 years old, he's a lifelong resident of Wells, Maine, a seaside town on the Atlantic Ocean.

But unlike his father and grandfather, who fished these waters a century and a half ago, Roy's a Democrat in a state that ricochets between parties. Al Gore won Maine by a solid margin in 2000. But this state has more independents than Republicans or Democrats. The two major parties earn about 30 percent each.

He always thought "the Democratic way," he says, throwing out his right hand, holding the fishing rod in his left. "When I went to sign up, 21 years old, the town clerk tried to talk me out of it. She said, 'Your father was a Republican, your grandfather, and you should be one.' I said, 'Put it down there as a Democrat.' And I've always been that way." Maybe it had to do with FDR, he thinks. World War II had just ended. Shrugging, though unsure of why, Roy bellows out in laughter.

Roy also laughs when asked whether he talks politics with former President George H.W. Bush. But then he gives a discouraging nod, as if to speak of politics would be impolitic among fishermen.

See, Roy says he's talked to Bush Sr., as he calls him, 40 or 50 times. "We talk more about boats than anything."

The Bushes have a home in Kennebunkport, just north of Wells Harbor, where Roy fishes now. The ex-president spends almost every summer here. Although George H.W. Bush won the state in 1988, he only finished third here in 1992.

Roy's been here an hour. He's caught no fish, but seagulls fly overhead and small sailboats dot the crystal-blue bay behind him.

The Daytona 500 is the only event that gets Roy out of Wells. "Every year," he says.

"We've always lived here," he tells it. "That's all we've ever done. My great grandfather built the first summer hotel on Wells beach in 1851. Captain Charles Perkins."

As he fishes, Roy speaks of Bush Sr. as if everyone knows a president. "I was the harbor master at Perkins Cove for many many years," he says. "I was talking to him here two weeks ago. I had a long chat with him."

And what's he like?

"The old man Bush, he's a real gentleman; he's a real nice guy," Roy says, as he prepares to cast out his line.

Roy believes the current President Bush is "only trying to make up for his father making the mistake in Iraq many years ago, when he should have gone in and taken the country over. When we had it won, we wouldn't have had all these problems."

But you never told Goerge H.W. Bush this?

"No, we never talk politics," the stout man replies.

Is that the secret, to talk fishing and not politics?

"I think so," he replies. "That's the secret to my life."

"I wish there were more choices. The choices seem down to George Bush and John Kerry," Juanita Lucas says, shaking her head at the counter. Her short blond hair bobs, as she stands to the side in her blue shirt with the diner's emblem. The diner's abuzz with customers, a dozen tourists outside in line.

"I'm hesitant about voting because I really don't feel either one," she says. "I voted for George Bush in the last one. I'm not real happy with the things that have happened over the last four years."

Her husband is a Republican. Her son is a Democrat. She says she's stuck between the two men in her life, like lots of wives and mothers.

"I don't think I am going to vote for either one of them," Juanita concludes. "That's my choice. Because I think if Rudy Giuliani ran for president, I would vote for him."

She gets back to work. Smiling, busy, after each order, she asks customer: "Chips, coleslaw or potato salad?"

Good choices.

"I'm very dissatisfied with some things President Bush has been doing, his handling of the war, and his handling of the security situation in this country. Yet on the Democratic side, I don't think he has all my interests at heart. Being a gay individual, I'm concerned about equal rights and rights for gay people."

Maine rejected gay rights initiatives in 1998 and 2000.

A thin man, his navy-blue collared shirt perfectly tucked in his shorts, Don adds, "If you don't want Bush, you vote Kerry. But then I'm worried about Kerry."

York

The coast of Maine is tourists, tourists, tourists. Just off the water, inland, is York.

"I'd just as soon not have tourists come here," Bob Withington says. He doesn't sell tickets, but New England antique furniture.

His six-year-old shop bears his name. Sitting on a couch in shorts, legs like a basketball center, Bob say, "Business has been off for the last two or three years."

"Eh," he shrugs, "the economy was already starting to go down the tube and since then, you know, antiques are not something people necessarily need."

By David Paul Kuhn