Bill Cohen’s 1972 Campaign for Congress: An Oral History of the Walk that Changed Maine Politics

Review
Political scientist Potholm (This Splendid Game) and Rowman & Littlefield CEO Lyons revisit a groundbreaking congressional campaign in this amiable oral history. In 1972, 32-year-old Republican candidate Bill Cohen faced an uphill battle for Maine’s second congressional district: Democrats controlled all but one of the state’s major elected political offices, and the Maine Republican Party was viewed as “moribund, old, and out-of-touch.” To help improve Cohen’s visibility and showcase his youth, vigor, and blue-collar background, campaign manager Potholm proposed a 650-mile walk across the largely rural district, which stretches from the New Hampshire border to the Canadian border and “comprises 80 percent of the state’s geography.” Lyons, then an undergraduate at Bowdoin College, served as one of the campaign’s advance men. In digressive conversations with former campaign staffers, Cohen, Potholm, and Lyons discuss the complicated logistics of the walk, which involved spending each night with a different Maine family; share amusing anecdotes about blistered feet, uncooperative horses, and awkward sleeping arrangements; and detail Cohen’s subsequent legislative accomplishments and the campaign’s influence on Maine politics. Niche yet perceptive, this is an illuminating look back at a less polarized political era. ― Publishers Weekly
I couldn’t put it down! Bill Cohen was a trailblazer. This book covers not just his public side, but also the personal, private, and family side of him, told in his own words. I thought the give and take between the three of them kept it moving and got Bill to be more personal. -- John Baldacci, former governor of Maine
The new book… edited by Potholm and Jed Lyons, is an oral history. Though the participants engage in a wide-ranging discussion of both historic and contemporary issues, its North Star is Cohen’s successful 1972 campaign, the first of several major Maine elections in which a walk was credited with providing the momentum for victory by a prevailing Republican candidate…. [The book] is a fascinating perspective and commentary that’s an effortless but inspiring read on a compelling array of subjects. ― Daily Bulldog
1972 was a true watershed in Maine politics. Following a hundred years of Republican dominance, Democrats led by Senator Ed Muskie had achieved a string of victories that threatened to sweep Republicans from the board of congressional and gubernatorial offices. On election day only the win by first time Republican congressional candidate Bill Cohen would stop the Democrat shut out.
Cohen won by determination and perseverance, charisma, and grit, and by his campaign 650-mile walk across Maine’s expansive second congressional district from Gilead on the New Hampshire border to Ft. Kent on the Canadian border. The Walk, as it became known, was an over-arching feature of that campaign and soon became a staple of the subsequent successful campaigns by congressional, senate, and gubernatorial candidates in the Pine Tree State. On the fiftieth anniversary of a campaign that would change the course of Maine politics and propel Cohen onto the national political stage where he would play prominent roles in the House, Senate, and as secretary of defense, this book captures, in the vivid and often surprising words of the participants, how The Walk came to be.