Fourth in a series of profiles of candidates running in the 1st Congressional District primary races.

BY KEVIN WACK

Blethen Maine Newspapers

In his job as a pediatrician, Steve Meister often becomes frustrated that he can't get better information about the effectiveness of his treatment.

After he treats patients with asthma, for example, he wants to know if their condition has improved. He wants evidence.

"Doctors need to know how they're doing," he said in a recent interview.

Meister, 53, is seeking the Democratic nomination in Maine's 1st Congressional District, and he is approaching his first run for political office in much the same way he approaches medicine -- as a pragmatist who is interested in solutions that work, regardless of dogma and ideology.

In all, six Democrats and two Republicans are vying in the June 10 primaries for a spot on the Nov. 4 general-election ballot. Democratic Rep. Tom Allen is stepping down from the House seat to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

As a first- time candidate, Meister doesn't have a large network of contributors. He acknowledges that he is consequently at a disadvantage in the crowded Democratic contest. Still, Meister is conceding nothing.

As he talks to voters, he's seeking to turn his outsider status into an advantage, and to distinguish himself by demonstrating a deep understanding of public policy. In a recent interview, for example, he launched into a long explanation of the role that certain financial instruments played in the subprime mortgage crisis.

Meister says he's running based on a strategy that assumes voters will pay close attention to what the candidates have to say.

Addressing the issue of why he decided to run, he said, "I'm doing it because there are serious issues to be addressed."

Meister grew up in Deer Park, N.Y., which he described as a working-class community on Long Island. His father was a boilermaker. Meister was one of four boys in the family. Each of them went on to become captain of the lacrosse team at Brown University in Providence, R.I.

To pay for medical school, Meister made a commitment to serve in the Navy after graduation. It was a commitment that brought him to the Naval Medical Center in San Diego and, during the Gulf War, to the desert of Saudi Arabia.

Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait in August 1990. A short time later, as American forces prepared to intervene, Meister was part of a team of military doctors that was sent to Saudi Arabia, near the Kuwait border, to set up a combat support hospital.

Looking back on the experience, Meister expressed outrage over the red tape the doctors encountered as they sought to provide care. He recalled making requests for sutures and intravenous equipment, and delivering warnings that people would die if the materials didn't come.

"And we were told by the administrators that people die in wars," Meister said. "I'm still mad, because it's not right."

Dr. Craig Newland, another physician who was part of the mission, said that the military doctors had a choice when confronted with a slow-moving bureaucracy. He said they could either be complacent, or they could battle for change, and that is what Meister did.

"Once he recognizes what's right and what should be done, he's going to stick with it and fight for it," said Newland, a doctor in the Kansas City area who has contributed to Meister's campaign. "He's a bulldog that way."

Twelve years ago, Meister and his wife, Dervilla McCann, a Maine native who's also a doctor, decided to move to her home state.

Since then, Meister, who lives in Winthrop, has been working as a pediatrician in the Augusta area.

For several years he played a lead role at the Mid-Maine Child Trauma Network, which served kids who'd been through extraordinary stress. Today he is clinical director of the Pediatric Rapid Evaluation Program, which provides care to children in foster care.

Meister's interest in public policy dates back at least 15 years. He recalled attending a congressional hearing on the Food and Drug Administration during the early 1990s, when he was taking a course on health care policy in Washington, D.C. Certain Republicans wanted to limit the FDA's authority, in order to speed up the approval of prescription drugs, he said.

"I thought that was dangerous," Meister said, "and look what's happened." Meister describes himself as a moderate on a range of issues, economic and otherwise.

He said he is concerned about the economic damage he believes is caused by class-action lawsuits. He wants to work toward providing health insurance for all Americans -- for instance, by establishing regional insurance pools to drive down costs. But he disagrees with several Democratic rivals who favor a government-financed single-payer system.

In the Middle East, Meister said that he wants to see a major diplomatic initiative to force Iraqis to take greater control over their country's security.

Meister has only been a Democrat since last October -- previously he was not enrolled in a political party -- and has said he's been disillusioned by both major parties.

Meister explained his decision to become a Democrat by saying, "It's clear to me now that we have to choose, and that if people who aren't enrolled in a party don't enroll, then we won't have any moderate candidates."

Dr. Sydney Sewall, one of Meister's colleagues at Kennebec Pediatrics in Augusta, called Meister a competent, thoughtful, can-do person who would be a strong advocate for children and families. But he also wondered about Meister's lack of political experience.

"When it comes to intelligence and values and ability to think on his feet and priorities, I don't think you can beat him," Sewall said. "But the question is, When the rubber hits the road, can he perform as well as someone who's been there before?"

Meister believes that serving in Congress is basically a management position, and he ticks off examples of his managerial experience in the medical realm.

But he also readily admits his deficiencies as a politician. "I'm not good at working the room," he said.

Nor does he believe he's an effective fundraiser. Meister had raised $88,850 through March 31, which put him in last place among the six Democratic candidates, according to the latest campaign-finance reports. He said that he heard an estimate that it will take $500,000 to win, and then offered an assessment of his own chances. "If that's what it takes to win, then it's not realistic at all," he said.

But Meister also said he's been impressed with the seriousness of the voters who have attended numerous debates and forums across the district.

"After a debate like last night," he said in a recent interview, "I think it's totally realistic."