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.”