A reason to remember Margaret Chase Smith

At the Republican National Convention this week, most of the buzz was over Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska), the first woman to be named as a Republican vice presidential candidate.

In the Maine delegation, this gave many a reason to remember former Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, the first woman to be nominated for President on the floor of a convention.

In 1964, Smith placed fifth of nine candidates in the initial round of balloting at the Republican National Convention in 1964, with 27 of 1,308 votes. She refused to drop out for the second round of balloting, so Barry Goldwater’s nomination was not unanimous.

Smith started her political career in 1940 when she took over the seat of her husband, U.S. Rep. Clyde Smith, who died that year. In 1948 she ran for the U.S. Senate, becoming the first woman in the country to be elected in her own right, not following her husband.

Her Senate primary was tough, said Maine National Committeeman Richard Bennett. She ran against sitting Gov. Horace Hildreth and the immediate past governor Sumner Sewall, and the Rev. Albion Beverage.

“No one expected her to win,” Bennett said.

Six weeks before the primary, a smear campaign was launched against her by an anonymous party, accusing her of voting with a divisive figure in Congress 95 percent of the time.

It was misleading, Bennett said, as the tally included lots of procedural votes.

Smith sat on it for three weeks and then gave a speech at the Republican women’s club in Skowhegan denouncing the smear.

“She waited until the right moment,” Bennett said. “She was known for making bold moves. People responded to her because she was unfairly smeared.”

In 1950 she gave her famous “Declaration of Conscious” speech, speaking out against Sen. Joseph McCarthy for his anticommunist crusade.

From the speech: “As an American, I condemn a Republican “Fascist” just as much I condemn a Democratic “Communist.”  I condemn a Democrat “Fascist” just as much as I condemn a Republican “Communist.”  They are equally dangerous to you and me and to our country.  As an American, I want to see our nation recapture the strength and unity it once had when we fought the enemy instead of ourselves.”

 State Sen. Kevin Raye (R-Perry) said she was taking a shuttle to the Senate floor when she ran into McCarthy. She told him: “I’m going to speak on the floor, and you’re not going to like it.”

The speech ultimately caused a backlash, with McCarthy supporting her defeat in 1952, but she was reelected, and served until 1972.

Raye said Smith made her announcement speech in Skowhegan in January, 1964. She first listed all the reasons that people said she shouldn’t run.

Then she said she was running for President.

“She was saying that she was undeterred,” Raye said.

Smith continued to impact Maine politics after she was defeated in 1972 and died in 1995.

“She certainly inspired both U.S. Senators,” Raye said. “They understood as young girls that it was possible for them to aspire to public office.”

Maine House Republican Leader Josh Tardy (R-Newport) said that her leadership put Maine on the map. She was, “A leader who advanced gender equality and independent mindedness,” he said.

U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe said that she heard Smith speak for the first time at the 1970 Republican State Convention in Portland. Snowe was a senior in high school.

In that speech, Snowe said she said a line that has stayed with her during her political career.

“She said, ‘I tell it like it is’,” Snowe said. “People just cheered. It said so much of who she is.”