Rep. Tom Allen (D) Elected 1996, 4th term
Born:	Apr. 16, 1945, Portland
Home:	Portland
Education:	Bowdoin Col., B.A. 1967, Rhodes Scholar, Oxford U., B. Phil. 1970; Harvard J.D. 1974
Religion:	Protestant
Marital Status:	married (Diana)
Elected  Office:	Portland City Cncl., 1989-95; Portland Mayor, 1991.
Professional Career:	Staffer, U.S. Sen. Edmund Muskie, 1970-71; Practicing atty., 1974-94; Chmn., ME Clinton-Gore Campaign, 1992; Public Policy Consultant, 1995.
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The 1st District of Maine stretches from southernmost Kittery and nearby Kennebunkport to the craggy-shored ancestrally Republican counties to the east. The historic center is Portland, Maine's largest city, home to the yuppies and lawyers that have revived and renovated its downtown landmarks. Portland's antique charm, mostly booming economy and tolerant lifestyle have made it a haven for singles, for lesbians and gays: the 2000 Census reported that Portland has the nation's third-largest concentration of women living together and is tenth in men living together. L.L. Bean, open 24/7/365, is not far away in Freeport. Most voters in the 1st District live within a couple hours drive of the Maine Mall--just off the Maine Turnpike and I-295 and near the airport--the state's heaviest concentration of retail and office space. Lobsters are not just a tradition here but an economic resource: Lobster fishing has been booming, with a 2002 harvest worth $188.5 million. Politically, the 1st votes very much like the state as a whole, quirkily, often for independents, splitting tickets with abandon. From 1968 to 1996 it elected three Democrats and three Republicans to the House, with each party holding the seat for 14 years.

The congressman from the 1st District is Tom Allen, a Democrat elected in 1996. Allen grew up in Portland, where his grandfather and father served on the city council. He was class president in high school and college; at Bowdoin, he was captain of the football team and criticized fraternities because they wouldn't admit blacks. He was a Rhodes Scholar in Oxford the same years as Bill Clinton (who struck him as "one of the nicest, warmest people I ever knew"), Robert Reich and Strobe Talbott, and when he returned, he got a job on the staff of Senator Edmund Muskie. Then he dropped out of politics, went to law school, practiced in Portland, and worked on charities and community service. In 1989 he was elected to the Portland City Council, and in 1991 rotated into the position of mayor. In 1994 he ran for governor, finishing a distant second to former Governor Joseph Brennan in the Democratic primary. The 1st District race in 1996 was an obvious next step, and an attractive opportunity. Freshman Republican James Longley had a well-known name as son of the independent governor elected in 1974, and he had won the 1994 race 52%-48%, though heavily outspent. But Longley's moderate record was overshadowed by his support for the Contract with America and more than $1 million in ads run against him by the AFL-CIO. Allen, with heavy support from Portland, won a 52%-48% primary victory over state Senator Dale McCormick. Allen called for "incremental steps" toward a single-payer health care system. In the general, the candidates disagreed on capital punishment, partial-birth abortions, term limits and the balanced budget amendment. Allen called for scaling back Republicans' $10 billion increase in defense spending. Longley pointed out it included a Navy destroyer to be built at the Bath Iron Works; Allen backtracked and said he would of course support Maine defense contracts. Allen won 55%-45%.

Allen has a liberal voting record. His first major initiative was a bipartisan campaign finance bill, proposed with other freshmen. In April 1998, after Allen launched a discharge petition, Speaker Newt Gingrich switched and allowed the freshman bill to come to the floor as the vehicle for campaign finance bills. Allen was pleased when the more stringent Shays-Meehan bill passed the House later that year; he subsequently became an active proponent. When a revised version was enacted four years later, Common Cause lauded his leadership. When a federal judge before the 2000 election overturned Maine's landmark prescription-drug law, Allen promised to change federal law to reinstate the local law; he failed to gain bipartisan support in the House. In 2001, he was defeated on parliamentary grounds when he sought a House vote on requiring that applications for new pharmaceutical drugs disclose the cost of research and development, including public dollars. He has voiced concern about the inability of small businesses to pay the cost of health insurance for their employees, and has called for federal subsidies to the states to help them.

On other issues, he pushed to require power plants and trash incinerators to cut mercury emissions 95% and sponsored the compact to allow Maine and Vermont to dump nuclear waste in Sierra Blanca, Texas, near the Mexico border, a measure Senator Paul Wellstone called "environmental racism." On the Armed Services Committee, he helped to secure $2.8 billion for three Aegis destroyers with construction work divided by Bath Iron Works in Maine and Ingalls Shipyards in Mississippi, plus funds for projects at Saco Defense, Brunswick Naval Air Station, and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard at Kittery. As an advocate of arms control, he backed the Bush administration's plan to dismantle MX missiles. But he voiced alarm that the decline in shipbuilding could reduce the Navy's aging fleet to 240 ships, which might fall short of the nation's combat needs. He voted against the use of force in Iraq because the resolution gave President Bush "a blank check," and a war might benefit "recruiting for al Qaeda." He launched a House Ocean Caucus to focus on environmental, fishing and other topics that affect Maine's 4500-mile shoreline.

Bowdoin political scientist Chris Potholm describes the swing voters in this district as "cruel yuppies," attracted to candidates who reflect their trendy values and aversion to taxes. Allen seems to have won their allegiance. In 2000 he won 60%-37%. Against a conservative who attacked him as "anti-defense," he won 64%-36% in 2002. Two years later than other states, redistricting moved a small part of the 1st to the slower-growing 2d District, but left Knox County wholly within the 1st District.

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DC Office
1717 LHOB 20515, 202-225-6116; Fax: 202-225-5590; Web site: www.house.gov/allen

State Offices
Portland, 207-774-5019.

Committees

• Energy & Commerce (23d of 26 D): Energy & Air Quality; Environment & Hazardous Materials.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	95	87	100	88	70	50	18	53	0	0	0
2001	95	--	100	93	--	--	11	30	0	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	91%	--	9%		76%	--	24%
Social	83%	--	11%		74%	--	19%
Foreign	85%	--	15%		77%	--	23%
For National Journal's complete 2002 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 107th Congress (More Info)
1. Approve Bush Tax Cuts N 2. Limit Patients' Bill of Rights N 3. Campaign Finance Reform Y 4. Ban ANWR Development Y 5. Faith-Based Charities N 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts N		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion N  8. Arm Commercial Pilots N  9. Trade Promotion Authority N 10. Bar Funds for Intl. Court N 11. Authorize Force in Iraq N 12. Deny Home. Sec. Dept. Union N

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Tom Allen (D)	172,646	64%	$521,308
	Steven Joyce (R)	97,931	36%	$172,350
2002 primary	Tom Allen (D)	unopposed
2000 general	Tom Allen (D)	202,823	60%	$639,119
	Jane Amero (R)	123,915	37%	$478,817
	J. Frederic Staples (Lib)	12,356	4%
Prior winning percentages: 1998 (60%); 1996 (55%)

2000 presidential
	Gore (D)	176,293	51%
	Bush (R)	148,618	43%
	Other	23,741	7%
For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the First District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: D + 4
• District Size: 5,480 square miles
• Population in 2000: 666,936; 50.4% urban; 49.6% rural
• Median Household Income: $41,585; 8.8% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 23.0% blue collar; 61.3% white collar; 15.7% gray collar; 15.8% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 96.3% White, 0.6% Black, 0.9% Asian, 0.3% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 0.9% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 0.8% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 16.1% English, 11.9% Irish, 9.7% French
• Click here for statewide demographic data.