Bedfellows make strange politics - just ask the Pendletons of Scarborough. They're just one example of how the Nov. 5 election in Maine is a real family affair.
Republican state Rep. Robert Pendleton is campaigning for a second term, while his wife, former state Rep. Peggy Pendleton, is running for the state Senate - as a Democrat."Separate parties," Peggy Pendleton, a former Republican, says with a laugh. "We like it."
How do they live in harmony? "No partisan bickering after the lights go out," Peggy Pendleton advises.
Some of the other relatives who are running:
- While freshman Republican Rep. James Longley Jr. tries to fend off a stiff challenge in Maine's 1st Congressional District, his Democratic sister Susan is favored to win re-election to the state Senate.
- In races for the state House, a mother-daughter pair of Mitchells - Elizabeth H. and J. Elizabeth - and a mother-son tandem of Saxls - Jane and Michael - are wooing voters in hopes of securing two more years each. All four are Democrats.
- In Bangor, Republicans recruited a father-in-law and daughter-in-law - Willard and Nichi Farnham - to wage state House challenges in neighboring districts.
Our Democratic friends and our Republican friends are still our friends.
Robert Pendleton
- In Sanford, the Democrats put up Pauls: Norman, an incumbent, for the state House, and son Gordon, for an open state Senate seat.
Family ties are commonplace in American politics, from the Kennedys and the Rockefellers to lesser known local dynasties and clans. Maine has its own, typified by a steady presence in Augusta of Dutrembles, which family patriarch Lucien Dutremble hopes to re-establish after a brief interruption.
The all-in-the-family trend reached a zenith in 1989 when Gov. John McKernan wed his longtime sweetheart, Rep. Olympia Snowe. She has since won election to the U.S. Senate and he has gone into private business.
Susan and James Longley brandish a formidable political name, recalling their outspoken father. The late James Longley, an independent, won a term as governor in the mid-1970s. That Susan Longley is a liberal from one party and her brother a conservative from another has only added to the family's political mystique.
Name recognition is less of a factor for the younger Mitchell and Saxl. Both second-generation officeholders won election in Portland, where neither family was associated with local politics, after moving away from home.
The campaigning Pendletons, who just celebrated their 30th anniversary, often make joint campaign appearances, but eschew joint campaign signs.
"Some are located in similar spots because some people like both of us," Peggy Pendleton says.
Adds her husband: "Our Democratic friends and our Republican friends are still our friends."