By Amanda Estes
Staff Writer
President George W. Bush nominated South Portland resident Peter Cianchette to be the next U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica last week.
A U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations official said the nomination has not yet reached the committee, which reviews diplomatic nominations before they can move forward to the full Senate.
If the Senate confirms the nomination, Cianchette will replace Mark Langdale, a former executive with the U.S. subsidiary of a Latin American hotel company, who was appointed in October 2005.
Cianchette, a partner at CHK Capital Partners, LLC, is currently Maine’s National Republican Committeeman and previously served as the Maine General Chairman of the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign, according to a Maine Republican Party biography. He represented South Portland and Cape Elizabeth in the Maine House of Representatives from 1996 to 2000 and was the 2002 Republican gubernatorial nominee.
In light of his pending confirmation, Cianchette declined to speak about his nomination and referred questions to White House spokesman Trey Bohn.
“Mr. Cianchette enjoys broad bipartisan support and we look forward to working with the Senate to move quickly on this highly qualified and well-respected nominee,” Bohn said.
The White House also pointed to Cianchette’s business, civic and political experiences as qualifications to represent the U.S. abroad.
According to a White House announcement, Cianchette previously served as president of the Cianchette Group.
Cianchette has more than 20 years of business experience including serving as a senior executive in the Dragon Products Company, a cement and concrete manufacturer; and running Cianchette Enterprises, Inc., which owned and operated Initial Staffing Services, according to the Maine Republican Party biography. Cianchette also previously served as chief operating officer and executive vice-president at the business and public affairs consulting firm, Pierce Atwood Consulting.
The biography also outlines Cianchette’s public service which includes serving as a director on the boards of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Maine and YES! to Youth. He also serves on the George and Barbara Bush Maine Cultural Center Committee, the Finance Committee of the American Lighthouse Foundation, and as a MaineHealth corporator. Cianchette has also served as director of the Greater Portland Big Brothers/Big Sisters, the Boy Scouts of America/Pine Tree Council, the Portland Chamber of Commerce and the Southern Maine Community College Foundation. In addition, he served as president of the Maine Better Transportation Association and as chairman of the Maine Advancement Program.
In a joint statement, Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe both said they supported President Bush’s nomination.
“Peter is a terrific choice for this position,” Collins said. “He is a dedicated, hard working and well-liked individual whose blend of business, public service and civic service experiences will lend itself to this position.”
Snowe said she can “attest to his dedication and commitment to public service.”
“He is an excellent communicator and is, I believe, an ideal candidate for this opening,”she said. “I’m extremely happy for Peter and his family and hopeful the Senate will move quickly to confirm his nomination.”
According to the Central Intelligence Agency’s World Fact Book and a July 2007 estimate, Costa Rica has a population of more than 4.1 million people. It is located in Central America between Nicaragua and Panama.
In a January 2008 farewell speech to the American Chamber of Commerce, Langdale said he believed Costa Rica would continue to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of CAFTA, or the Central America-Dominican Republic-United States Free Trade Agreement, in the region.
“The main point in my first speech two years ago was that Costa Rica needed to hurry up and pass CAFTA,” Langdale said. “Looking back on that really emphasizes the limitations of a U.S. Ambassador’s power!”
According to an October 2007 Associated Press report, Costa Ricans approved CAFTA in a national referendum, but some opponents were against opening up state telecommunication and insurance monopolies to competition and opening up the market to cheap, U.S. agricultural imports.
“It’s not a country that you generally see in the news as presenting some challenge to the U.S. in diplomacy,” The Center for Responsive Government Communications Director Massie Ritsch said.
The Center for Responsive Government is a Washington D.C. based non-profit research group that tracks money in politics.
Ritsch said historically, “plumb” embassy post assignments have been handed out to campaign contributors. Career diplomats and individuals with foreign relations experience are generally appointed to more “politically complicated” posts.
According to the organization’s donor lookup, Cianchette donated a total of $2,250 in contributions to Republican candidates in election cycles spanning from 1994 to 2006. Cianchette donated $500 to President George W. Bush’s 2004 campaign.
Throughout the 2000, 2002 and 2004 election cycles, Langdale made a total contribution of $143,520 to the Republican Party. Contributions to Bush totaled $7,500.
  “At the end of a presidential administration where ambassadors are going to be serving less than a year, probably you may be able to get these posts for bargain basement rates,” Ritsch said. “At the beginning of the administration, fundraisers who had contributed themselves hundreds of thousands of dollars got themselves first crack ambassadorships.”
Ritsch said a familiarity or knowledge of the country’s culture is not a priority for all embassy posts.
“Most of the ambassadors who are big political contributors speak very few words of the language of the country they’re going to represent us in,” he said. “They’re generally not experienced in the culture of these places. They don’t necessarily have ties to them which doesn’t mean they can’t represent the United States well.”