Charlie Summers on Government Reform

OpEd: Pushes for voter registration, with his name on ballot

Only two weeks ago, Secretary of State Charlie Summers put out an official press release reminding Maine voters of the need to vote in the June primary along with information about filing an absentee ballot. Summers says he was only following a fairly perfunctory notice that has been issued by his predecessors--both GOP and Democratic. This year's Republican ballot will be a little different than those past notices, though, because Summers will be listed on it as a Republican candidate for the US Senate nomination. Democrats criticized Summers for what they said was skating dangerously close to a conflict of interest even as the secretary officially launched his Senate campaign.

But Summers was unfazed. "I can certainly come up with a scenario where if that press release didn't go out, I would be criticized for not putting it out," Summers said