By Nate Jones
Staff Writer
Having family members overseas can certainly put a lot of stress on a family, especially soldiers’ spouses. Ruth Summers, 37, is committed not only to raising her family in her husband’s absence, but spearheading his campaign for Congress while he is serving in Iraq.
In addition to overseeing the Charlie Summers campaign, Ruth Summers continues to serve two weeks a year in the U.S. Navy reserves and is the executive director for EDMC Education Foundation, a national non-profit organization that grants academic scholarships.
Ruth Summers said she knew her husband, who is now 49, was going to run for Congress since competing against Tom Allen four years ago.
“We gave him a real run for his money,” she said.
“Campaigning is one of the most rewarding experiences you’ll have in your life; win or lose,” said Dwayne Bickford, Maine’s former executive director of the Republican party and a major player in the Summers campaign.
Ruth Summers said helping her husband with his campaign is something that comes naturally.
“Some people say it’s a good campaign strategy, but it’s no strategy. It’s just what we do,” she said.
Ruth Summers is no stranger to the military life, as her father served in the Marines as a JAG lawyer while she was growing up.
“We moved every three years,” she said. “It was really a great upbringing for me and my family.”
Ruth Summers graduated from high school in Okinawa, Japan, and said she was surprised to meet her sheltered college roommate when she returned to the U.S. to attend Southwest Texas State University, where she would go on to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.
“She said that she hadn’t ever left Texas, and I thought that I hadn’t ever really come back before,” she said.
 Ruth and Charlie Summers met in 1999 while serving together in the reserves. She said at the time she was living in Texas and he was a widower living in Scarborough with two kids.
Over the course of a year she migrated north and finally settled with Charlie Summers in 2000. They were married in June 2002.
Ruth Summers has been in the U.S. Navy Reserves for the past 13 years. She said her time in the reserves has enabled her to serve her two weeks in different U.S. states, Italy and Saudi Arabia.     
Ruth Summers said at one point she was deployed to Southeast Asia.
“I lived on a ship for three years,” she said. “It was great to have a chance to get back to that part of the world.”
The Summers family wasn’t surprised when Charlie Summers was called upon for active duty, Ruth Summers said.
“It was really something we were expecting, especially after we were both promoted to Lt. Commanders in May. It truly does happen the way people say it does; you don’t hear anything for a while, and then all of a sudden you’re headed overseas. We didn’t join the circus, we joined the U.S. military,” Ruth Summers said.
When word about her husband’s deployment spread, the Summers started received calls from many people who were concerned that he wouldn’t run for congress while he was away, Ruth Summers said.
“So many people wanted to know what he was going to do,” she said. “It was a sign to us that he needed to run.”
Ruth Summers said her husband is serving with the Communications Division of the Strategic Effects Directorate for a provincial reconstruction team in Baghdad. The reconstruction team is responsible for building roads and buildings and many other things, she said.
“Charlie’s job is to make sure that the word gets out that the U.S. forces are working together with the Iraqis to get things done,” Ruth Summers said.
This isn’t the first time Ruth Summers’ husband has been deployed, as he spent seven months at the pentagon shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Military wives stepping up to the plate for their husbands is nothing new, Ruth Summers said.
And while she admitted running a family in addition to campaigning for her husband can be daunting at times, she also said it was certainly not an individual effort.
“We have a really wonderful group of volunteers; some know Charlie personally and some don’t,” she said.
Ruth Summers said she believes the Mainers volunteering their time to the campaign are extremely hard working and passionate.
“Whenever somebody comes up to us in the supermarket or the hardware store and says ‘Well, you don’t know me,’ I have to keep walking because I know Charlie’s going to be talking with them for a long time,” she said. “Everyone’s so hard working, and when they say they’re going to do something they give 110 percent.”
Per Navy regulations Charlie Summers cannot take part in any aspect of the campaign while he is overseas, Ruth Summers said. He has, however, received a letter from the secretary of the Navy permitting him to be involved in a campaign while on deployment, and doesn’t discuss his political views openly.
“We don’t really talk politics when he calls home,” she said. “Usually he wants to know what I’ve bought, and how the kids are doing.”
Chas, their 19-year-old son, is a midshipman at the Naval Academy in Annapolis Md., where he plays football.
“[Chas] has a lot of friends and family that are proud of him,” she said.
Their daughter Tricia, 23, lives in New York but traveled to Maine to help her mother with the Republican caucuses throughout the state.
“It’s going to take a lot of coffee to get through them all,” she said prior to the caucuses.
With the help of Bickford and her daughter, Ruth Summers said she will carry her husband’s messages to as many Mainers as she can.
“We had some really good conversations before Charlie left,” she said. “I think he will have an interesting perspective when he gets back.”
Ruth Summers said she has no doubt that her husband’s time in Iraq will shape his views on politics and allow him to speak about his own direct experiences as a soldier.
“I respect and understand where he’s coming from, and hope he can take the experiences he has from Maine and Iraq to do good work in Washington,” she said.
Ruth Summers said her husband could be deployed up to one year, but will be home on leave for two weeks in March.