PORTLAND — New reporting from Bangor Daily News’ Benjamin Kail blows a hole in Republican gubernatorial candidate Bobby Charles’ carefully crafted State Department story: former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice fired him.

Charles routinely touts his State Department experience on the campaign trail, holding it up as proof that he’s qualified to be governor. According to Condoleezza Rice’s memoir, she had “decided that the bureau needed new leadership,” she wrote about Charles. “The message had to be clear that I encouraged open disagreement but that this kind of behavior was unacceptable.”

This isn’t just Rice’s account, either. Former Washington Post fact checker and reporter Glenn Kessler also wrote in his 2007 book on Rice that she fired Charles.  

And a longtime official in Charles’ bureau told the Bangor Daily News that he told staff Charles had been asked to step down, adding that “nobody was terribly surprised” and describing Charles as “kind of a loose cannon.”

That’s THREE SOURCES: Condoleezza Rice’s memoir, Glenn Kessler’s book, and a former State Department official all saying that Bobby Charles was fired from the State Department.  

Rice’s book also took aim at Charles’ department, writing “The recordkeeping, though, and thus the accountability for that work was less than adequate.” The Bangor Daily News previously reported on the bureau’s extensive management failures during Charles’ roughly 18 months in charge, including more than a dozen federal audits that criticized its oversight, spending and performance.

Bangor Daily News: Bobby Charles says he quit his federal job. Condoleezza Rice told a different story

• Not long after she’d taken over for Secretary of State Colin Powell in 2005, Condoleezza Rice’s chief of staff walked into her office late one evening with a message about one of her bureau leaders.

• Bobby Charles, the assistant secretary for international narcotics and law enforcement, had gone behind her back to complain to allies on Capitol Hill after resisting overhauls she wanted to implement, Rice wrote in her 2011 memoir.

• “I decided that the bureau needed new leadership,” she wrote. “The message had to be clear that I encouraged open disagreement but that this kind of behavior was unacceptable.”

• Now Maine’s Republican gubernatorial nominee, Charles has staked much of his bid on his State Department tenure. Rice’s account, an earlier book and a former colleague who delivered news of Charles’ ouster to staff offer a portrait of his exit that hasn’t been reported during the governor’s race. The candidate disputed both accounts.

• Charles has often cited his State Department record as the brand of leadership he’d bring to the Blaine House. He faces frontrunner Democrat Hannah Pingree and independent state Sen. Rick Bennett in five days. The attorney and former naval intelligence officer became assistant secretary in October 2003, overseeing counter-narcotics efforts and police-training programs in Afghanistan and Iraq.

• Rice’s account echoes one published nearly 20 years ago by former Washington Post reporter Glenn Kessler. In his 2007 book on Rice, Kessler wrote that she fired Charles, a former aide to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, after learning he “had tried to drum up support on the Hill for a position he was advocating on Afghanistan.”

• Rice’s memoir did not name Charles or specify their disagreements. But she wrote that his bureau was overseeing huge expenditures to train police in Afghanistan and Iraq.

• “The recordkeeping, though, and thus the accountability for that work was less than adequate,” she wrote. “The serving assistant secretary was resistant to the changes that needed to be made.”

• More than a dozen federal audits criticized the bureau during Charles’ roughly 18 months in charge, finding poor management, billions spent without accountability and failure to accomplish primary foreign policy goals, the BDN reported in May.

• A retired longtime official in Charles’ bureau who told staff he had been asked to step down, granted anonymity because family members feared retaliation for weighing in on a political campaign, said “nobody was terribly surprised” at the news.

• The official described Charles as charming and well liked by staff and credited him with standing up for the State Department as Gen. David Petraeus’ role in Iraq grew, but he was a disorganized manager and “kind of a loose cannon.”