The Colby Echo

Issue date: 4/23/08 Section: Local News

Charles Summers

Adam Cote

For many here at the College, the impacts of the War in Iraq on our daily lives are few and far between. We might know a family friend or an acquaintance who's serving, but few know a good friend or close relative who has been in Iraq. Many faculty, however, know someone who has served in Iraq. His name is Adam Cote.

Cote grew up in York County in Southern Maine. He graduated from Colby in 1995 with honors in International Studies, but what really distinguishes Cote from other Colby alumni is what he did after graduating from the College. According to his website, "out of a sense of service to his country," Cote enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve after he graduated.

After his training, he was quickly deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina as part of the NATO peacekeeping mission. Cote made the most of his time in Bosnia-Herzegovina; aside from his military duties, he organized a "Toys for Tots" program within his platoon, taught English at a local high school, and arranged for the son of his interpreter to come and study in the United States.

After his service in Bosnia -Herzegovina, Cote got his Law degree from the University of Maine, but Cote military service was not over. In March 2004, Cote was deployed to Iraq as an officer in Mosul with Maine's 133rd Engineer Battalion. His stay in Iraq lasted nearly a year and was punctuated by a suicide bomber entering the mess hall he was in and killing or wounding over 100 people in the room, a scarring experience, but one that has made Cote even more determined to end the war.

Remarkably, while in Iraq, Cote was able to start a humanitarian organization called "Adopt an Iraqi Village," which continues to be run today. Cote started the organization as a response to the extreme poverty he witnessed in Iraq. It has now started to provide assistance to villages in Afghanistan as well.

Now, largely because of his experience in Iraq, Cote is running for Congress in a bid to replace Democratic Rep. Tom Allen. Although Cote is the only Colby graduate running for the First Congressional Seat in Maine, he's not the only person to have served in Iraq.

While Adam Cote is a relative newcomer to politics in Maine, Charles Summers has been around for a while. Although he grew up in Illinois, in 1990 he defeated a seven-term state senator to win the election for Senate District 31. He has also done some work on the Federal level. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) chose Summers to be her State Director in 1995. Now Summers finds himself stationed in Baghdad serving as a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy Reserve.

Campaigning for a public office would be difficult under any circumstances, but being on the other side of the world certainly makes it more difficult. To make matters worse, the Department of Defense has a number of very restrictive rules pertaining to a soldier campaigning for public office. In fact, Summers actually had to get a waiver from the Navy that allowed him to run in the first place.

Despite getting the waiver, Summers is not allowed in any way to be involved in his campaign while on active duty. He cannot raise money, call voters, or appear at events during his brief returns home. He can't even talk to or through his wife about the issues.

"Do we talk about issues of the day? Sure we do ... He listens to me talk about my day, and he talks about his day," Ruth Summers told the Morning Sentinel. "But he doesn't tell me what I should do, what I should say, or the direction the campaign should go."

Although he is not on active duty, Cote also has restrictions on what he can and can not do. For example, he is barred using any picture of him in uniform as the "primary graphic representation" on any kind of propaganda.

Cote and Summers may disagree on many of the issues, but they both agree on one thing: experiencing the Iraq War first hand has motivated them to serve their country in another way: as a member of the United States House of Representatives.

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