Former Republican congressional candidate Dean Scontras and other party activists are starting a political action committee to re-emphasize traditional GOP principles while taking a page from the Democratic Party's election playbook.

Scontras, a businessman from Kittery who lost to Charlie Summers in the GOP primary in June, said the Republican Project will emulate some of the strategies the opposition used to good effect in the election. Those efforts include the use of social networking sites for communication and fundraising.

He said the Republican Party must reaffirm its commitment to the "three-legged stool" of fiscal restraint, national security and social conservatism.

"We've all got to make it work under the same tent," Scontras said Wednesday.

On its Web site, the PAC said it will build a network of conservative activists, seek to influence political policy decisions, support conservative candidates while opposing liberals, and hold elected Republican officials accountable for supporting the GOP platform.

In addition to Scontras, the committee includes Ted Ropple, chairman of the Casco Town Republican Committee; Gordon Davis, an accountant who was treasurer of Scontras' campaign; and Jane Faulkner, a GOP state committee member who has worked on numerous campaigns.

The chairman of the Maine Republican Party, Mark Ellis, said the formation of the committee demonstrates that Republicans are re-evaluating their direction in response to the party's losses in the 2008 elections.

However, he said that the new PAC does not have a monopoly on party values, and that Republicans elsewhere on the political spectrum can lay claim to GOP traditions.

"As state chairman, I look forward to working with all of them," he said.

Scontras, who has a background in sales and management in high-tech companies, said it's important for the party to focus on using technology more effectively, especially to attract youths.

He said the GOP should use new means of communication to promote its conservative social values.

"If you lose the social conservatives nationally, the party won't be able to stand by itself," he said.

It's unclear how successful the conservative social message will be in Maine. Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins have built reputations as moderates, especially on social issues such as abortion and civil unions.

Brian Duff, a political scientist at the University of New England, pointed to Collins' resounding re-election victory over Democratic U.S. Rep. Tom Allen on a day when Democrat Barack Obama won the White House and other Democrats unseated GOP incumbents.

"She staked some ground here as having the message for the kind of Republicanism that works in Maine," Duff said. "And that is definitely not radically socially conservative."

Ellis, the GOP state chairman, said Republicans will review election results at a state committee meeting on Dec. 18, when views from many parts of the spectrum will be debated.

"The challenge for the party proper is to reconcile all of that ... and find the common ground and work from that as your foundation," he said.

Political Correspondent Dieter Bradbury can be reached at 791-6329 or at:

dbradbury@pressherald.com