Newcastle small-business man and former four-term state Rep. Jon McKane believes he can unite the fractured Maine Republican Party if he wins the chairmanship tomorrow.
“The Republican Party is in disarray right now,” McKane said. “It’s sad to see what has happened to it over the last year.
“I just want to see if I can bring those factions back together. They’re split off and I think some of them are still holding some bitterness, and we have to get past that to make us a viable and strong party again.”
The Maine Republican State Committee will choose between McKane and two other candidates: Rick Bennett of Oxford, a former Maine Senate president most recently active as a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2012; and Sam Canders of Bangor, a small-business man, veteran of the Afghanistan War and 2012 candidate for the Maine House of Representatives.
The divide in the Maine Republican Party dates at least to the chaotic state convention in May 2012, where supporters of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul elected the convention chairman, national convention delegates and state committee members from among their ranks, despite Mitt Romney’s win in the February caucuses.
Angry accusations of ethics violations and rule-breaking from both sides, along with the decision by the Republican National Committee to split the delegates between Paul and Romney, contributed to a divide between what many call the party “establishment” and the Ron Paul supporters, who count Canders among their ranks.
Maine Republicans then lost control of the House and the Senate, as well as a U.S. Senate seat, in the November election. Maine Republican Party Chairman Charlie Webster did not run for re-election the following month.
The state committee elected former Maine Representatives Richard Cebra of Naples and Beth O’Connor of Berwick chairman and vice chairwoman, respectively. Cebra and O’Connor both resigned within a two-week period in late June and early July.
McKane said Cebra had health problems and O’Connor plans to move to New Hampshire, but press reports point to dissatisfaction with Cebra and O’Connor among other party leaders.
McKane and some others see a bright side to all the upheaval in the record attendance at the convention.
“There wasn’t enough room at the Augusta Civic Center for everyone who wanted to get in,” McKane said. “That energy and those people are still out there and they still want to do something. We need to get those people back on board.”
McKane declined to align himself with a particular faction of the party.
“I’m called everything from a far-right-wing conservative to, believe it or not, an establishment liberal,” he said.
“I’m not going to try to label myself,” he said. “We need to have a common-sense government and I think there’s a lot of people in the Republican party and a lot of Democrats, too, upset with the direction we’re heading in.”
McKane said he does not know Bennett well and does not know Canders at all.
“I know as much about Rick Bennett as anybody who followed the U.S. Senate primary last year,” he said. “I liked what he said. I don’t know how he would be as chair; I don’t know him well enough.”
“All I know is a lot of people have asked, some pleaded, for me to take this position,” McKane said. His supporters include leaders of the state party, he said. “They think of me as a good communicator and they think that’s what the party needs.”
McKane views himself as “somewhat” of an underdog because of his late entry into the race and because of Bennett’s widespread name recognition at the state committee level.
He is confident, however, in his ability to lead the party. He knows many of the leaders of the various groups within the party and they know his record, he said.
“I’m pretty much an open book and I can talk to them,” McKane said. He hopes to be able to persuade party members who feel disenfranchised and disgruntled to “put the past aside” and go back to work alongside their fellow Republicans.
“I’m willing to put the energy into it to meet with these folks and see what we can do to get them back together,” he said. “That’s the first thing that needs to be done. Before we can really start raising money in earnest, we need to show we are a cohesive unit, a viable unit. That has to be done.”
“I think these people want to come back. I think they want to work together,” McKane said. “I don’t think they liked what happened in 2012. I think people are ready to get together and work together.”
McKane’s name has been mentioned as a possible candidate for a return to legislative office in 2014. Democrat Mick Devin holds the District 51 seat that was McKane’s from his defeat of incumbent Democrat Bill Earle in 2004 until term limits prevented him from running in 2012. The Democrats also control the District 20 Senate seat that represents all of Lincoln County except Dresden.
The state party bylaws bar the chairman from holding legislative office, but McKane did not say how his candidacy for chairman might affect a return to the Legislature.
“It’s never been a plan,” he said of running for office again. “I’ve never ruled it out completely.”
He decided to run for the state party position July 15 and has not “though about the other aspects of it,” he said.
