Environmentalists for Pingree, union workers for Strimling, businessmen for Scontras

Just weeks until the primary and the endorsements are rolling in for the First Congressional District primary. Here are the three most recent:

• Friends of Earth Action, a national environmental group that takes aim at corporate polluters, endorsed Chellie Pingree last week, citing her plans for the future and experience in the Maine Senate and with Common Cause.

“The climate crisis threatens our economic and national security as well as the health of the planet, and Chellie Pingree understands that. She has a plan to reduce global warming pollution and create green jobs in the process,” said Michael Herz, a Maine resident and board member of Friends of the Earth Action, in a statement. “She also understands that politics as usual isn’t working—that corporate special interests have taken over Washington and are blocking progress on important issues. She’ll fight to change that and to bring the concerns of Mainers about what’s happening to their unique environment to Congress.”

• Democrat Ethan Strimling’s campaign has compiled a list of 75 union workers who support him as individuals. They are part of 20 unions and 40 locals. Labor organizations supporting Strimling include Bath Iron Works Local S7, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, IAMAW-AFL-CIO.  According to a release, many cited Strimling’s work to raise the minimum wage and provide property tax relief.

“Ethan Strimling gets it,” said Tony Monfiletto, a member of IAMAW Local 6 at Bath Iron Works. “He understands what Maine’s working families are going through right now with higher energy costs, higher food costs and an administration in Washington that is more concerned with Wall Street than the folks on Main Street.”

The United Auto Workers union based at Bath Iron Works has endorsed Chellie Pingree. 

• The Maine Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee’s Business Advisory Council endorsed Republican Dean Scontras this week.

The council’s agenda includes support of: Affordable health care for businesses, simplifying the tax code, eliminating the “death” tax and decreasing regulation for businesses.

"As an Honorary Chairman of the NRCC Business Advisory Council from Maine, I support the candidacy of Dean Scontras because of his strong commitment to a free enterprise agenda," Michael Curry said in a release. "Scontras shares the Council's goals of reducing taxes, cutting regulation, improving the cost of healthcare - not through a government-run universal healthcare system, but by increasing access to capital for small business, and reigning in costly lawsuits."