Kennebec Journal - "Mark Lawrence says Bush in power grab, should be impeached"

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Kennebec Journal - "Mark Lawrence says Bush in power grab, should be impeached"

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Mark Lawrence believes the Bush administration has made an unconstitutional power grab over the last seven-plus years.

Lawrence, a Democratic candidate for Congress, is accusing the White House of trying to revive what he calls the "imperial presidency" of the Nixon years.

"And that's a very dangerous thing in this country," he said. "I think Congress has failed to check that."

Lawrence recently said he would vote for impeachment during the brief period next January before President Bush leaves office and after members of Congress members take their oaths. Two of his five Democratic opponents -- Chellie Pingree and Ethan Strimling -- agree.

Lawrence says impeachment is not about settling partisan scores. He is worried that if Congress doesn't rein in the power of the presidency, the next administration -- whether it is Republican or Democratic -- will take advantage of the legal precedents set by the current one.

The impeachment issue offers one illustration of how Lawrence's background as a lawyer is influencing his run for Congress.

Lawrence, 49, is one of six Democrats and two Republicans in the race to succeed Democratic Rep. Tom Allen in Maine's 1st Congressional District. The district covers much of southern, central and coastal Maine. Allen, a 12-year House veteran, is leaving the seat to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

Statewide, Lawrence is best known for his U.S. Senate candidacy in 2000, when he was trounced by Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe by a vote of 69 percent to 31 percent.

During that race, Lawrence was nearing the end of 12 years in the Maine Legislature. This year, he has a different public profile, having served since 2003 as district attorney in York County.

Being the top prosecutor in the state's second largest county has allowed Lawrence to expand his base of political support, but it has also opened him to a different kind of public scrutiny than most politicians face, with some people raising questions about his office's prosecutorial decisions.

Lawrence grew up in Kittery, the son of a welder at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. His parents were Republicans but not fierce partisans -- a portrait of John F. Kennedy hung in the hallway of the family's home.

Lawrence had the bug for politics as a young man. He was in his mid-20s when he first ran for the Maine Legislature. He says he lost that contest by 98 votes.

Four years later, in 1988, Lawrence was elected to the Maine House of Representatives for the first time.

Lawrence said in an interview that his interest in civil rights and civil liberties drew him to politics, and also to law school.

"I think there's a lot of people who see law as a means of going out and billing people $300 an hour," he said. "I've never viewed it as that."

Lawrence graduated from the University of Maine Law School in 1990. He soon went into private practice in York County, working both for small law firms and on his own. He handled a variety of cases, from criminal defense to boundary disputes.

Lawrence's career in politics advanced on a parallel track. He rose to become Senate president in 1996.

Over the next four years, Lawrence worked closely with Pingree, who was then the Senate Majority Leader and is now one of his opponents in the June 10 primary election. Lawrence cites the state's increased investment in research and development as one of his biggest achievements in Augusta.

In the 2000 U.S. Senate race, Lawrence faced a popular incumbent who had been a member of Maine's congressional delegation for 22 years.

Snowe outspent Lawrence by more than three to one. Looking back, Lawrence said the race taught him a lamentable lesson -- that a congressional candidate's success is closely tied to his ability to raise money.

For a time after the Senate race, Lawrence worked part-time while staying at home with Celine, the older of two daughters that he and his wife have adopted.

In early 2003, York County District Attorney Michael Cantara was chosen to head the Maine Department of Public Safety. The York County Democratic Committee recommended Lawrence for the job, and he was soon appointed by Gov. John Baldacci.

Voters returned Lawrence to office in 2004 and 2006, and in this year's congressional race he is pursuing a strategy that relies on mobilizing his political base in York County.

Lawrence operates an office with a staff of around 16 lawyers, who currently prosecute around 13,000 criminal cases per year. He describes the job as roughly a 50-50 mix of administration and legal work.

Over the last five years, he has been a vocal advocate for increased funding for his office pointing out that York County is the fastest growing part of the state, and noting that prosecutions are on the rise.

His tenure as district attorney has gotten mixed reviews.

Gene Libby, a former district attorney in York County who now provides legal counsel to the county commissioners, offered a positive assessment of Lawrence's job performance.

"I think most people regard Mark as running a good operation," said Libby, who noted that he has made campaign contributions to Lawrence.

But Saco Deputy Police Chief Charles Labonte complained about Lawrence's management of the district attorney's office. He said that the Saco police work with assistant district attorneys who don't seem to get a lot of guidance from Lawrence.

"You don't see him. You don't hear from him," Labonte said. "I don't recognize him as being very involved in his office."

Lawrence said that he has prosecuted hundreds of cases, and he presents evidence to the York County grand jury each month.

He acknowledged that running for Congress is time-consuming, but said it's his family that has suffered.

Lawrence's office also faces criticism from at least four families who have lost relatives in traffic crashes. They are upset that no criminal charges have been filed against the responsible drivers.

Corey DeWitt of Wells, whose daughter Courtney died in a 2006 crash involving a newly licensed driver, expressed outrage over Lawrence's handling of the case.

"When we contact him, he takes two weeks to get back to us," DeWitt said. "What message is this district attorney sending to let this 18-year-old driver off?"

Lawrence said he is not allowed to discuss specific facts in cases that were not prosecuted, but he defended his office's work. "We are very aggressive in prosecuting criminal offenses, but we follow the law as it's written," he said.

Michael Povich, a longtime district attorney in Washington and Hancock counties, said it can be hard for prosecutors to explain the difference between criminal behavior and civil negligence to families who have lost a loved one in a traffic crash.

"It's all fact-specific," Povich said. "And I have a hard time explaining it to them."

As Lawrence campaigns for Congress, he has refrained from criticizing his fellow Democratic candidates. Two of his opponents -- Pingree and Michael Brennan -- are former legislative colleagues.

But Lawrence has been attacking the Bush administration over tax cuts and the Iraq War, among other issues. And he has taken congressional Democrats to task for failing to oppose Republican policies more forcefully.

Lawrence believes that legal issues like domestic surveillance and the firing of U.S. attorneys, which are part of the case for impeachment, are also part of a larger trend: the growing distance between Washington, D.C., and everyday Americans.

"I think when you talk about the Constitution, you talk about taxes, you talk about so many issues in this country, it comes back to a common theme -- that Washington just doesn't get it anymore."

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