Quote of the day:
"I like Olympia Snowe, I think she fights hard for the people of Maine[...] Olympia Snowe -- I voted for her in the last election and I will vote for her until the day she dies, because she fights for Maine."
- Pat McGowan on MPBN
Dan Billings takes a look at what might have happened if Pat McGowan had won his close race against Olymia Snowe in 1990.
Pat McGowan resigned from his job as Maine's Conservation Commissioner today to seek the Democratic nomination for governor. McGowan, shown here not crashing his plane, is a former state representative and ran for Congress in the second district in 1990 and 1992, offering a tough challenge to then-Representative Olympia Snowe.
With many of the other Gubernatorial candidates hailing from southern Maine, McGowan's support in the second District may be a significant advantage. He plans to make his first campaign announcement tomorrow at 7am in Fort Kent.
State Rep. Dawn Hill, who was considered to be in the bottom tier of Democratic gubernatorial candidates and who hadn't seemed to be doing much campaigning, dropped out of the race on Thursday, citing an increasingly competitive Democratic field.
Hill plans to seek the Distict 1 State Senate seat, which is apparently being vacated by two-term incumbent Democrat Peter Bowman. District 1 was supposed to be a very competitive race last year, with Bowman facing off against former Republican Senator Mary Black Andrews, but Bowman ended up winning by a wide margin.
Public Policy Polling has released more results from their October 31st and November 1st survey of the Maine electorate (the same survey that showed equal marriage losing 51-47).
The new numbers (based on 415 likely Republican primary voters) show Senator Olympia Snowe losing to an unnamed "more conservative challenger" 31-59.
Not sure where you could find such a challenger who could run any kind of real campaign against Snowe.
Nemitz today says the health care debate may be the defining moment of Snowe's career, on par with the accomplishments of other Maine senators.
[Y]et another Maine political legacy is being written before our eyes.
For Margaret Chase Smith, it was the "Declaration of Conscience" speech in 1950 that turned the tide against the red-baiting Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. "Moscow Maggie," as McCarthy sneeringly called her, would go on to earn the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1989 from President George H.W. Bush.
For Ed Muskie, it was the very planet we live on. Sure, he failed in his bid for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination, but Muskie's efforts to clean our polluted air and water are at the very root of what we now call environmental protection.
For Bill Cohen, it was that signature moment in 1974 when, as a Republican freshman on the House Judiciary Committee, he broke with his party and voted to impeach President Richard Nixon.
For George Mitchell, it was the day he looked Lt. Col. Oliver North in the eye during a congressional hearing on the Iran-Contra scandal and taught him a thing or two about what it means to "love one's country." More significantly, it was the day when Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland went to the polls and together embraced the Good Friday Agreement brokered by the former senator from Maine.
I wrote on similar themes in this recent Down East piece.
Kerri Houston Toloczko, policy director of Conservatives for Patients Rights, discussing the health care reform positions of Senators Snowe and Collins in this month's Politics Magazine:
Oh yeah, we expect the chicks from Maine to go off the reservation on everything.
Ezra Klein has a great summary of Snowe's proposed amendments to the Finance Committee health care bill.
From a Huffington Post preview of Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer's new tell-all book:
Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins is fond of sending angry, middle-of-the-night e-mails to staffers because she's frustrated that her colleague and rival Olympia Snowe gets more and better press. As a result, reports Latimer, she rips through press secretaries like 30-packs at a beer-pong tournament. (A Collins press secretary didn't respond to a request for comment.)
From an article on the Press Herald website today on Senator Snowe's decision not to support even the incredibly timid Finance Committee health care bill:
For the past few weeks I've been working on a new website for MPA (one of the many reasons I wasn't posting as much for a while). It's now live at hc4.me (or healthcareformaine.com). The site allows people to speak out on health care reform in a number of ways, including Twitter, Facebook, text messaging, and by phone with the click of a button.
The most popular feature so far, however, has been the ability to send a free postcard to Senator Snowe. Visitors can choose an image, enter their own text, and the card will be printed and delivered to one of Snowe's offices.
In less than 24 hours since the site went live, there have been more than 600 cards created. I am absolutely blown away by the response so far, and even more surprised by the powerful personal appeals people are making to our senior Senator. Here are a few examples, with identifying information removed:
Dear Senator Snowe, Please support a public option for health care. I am a 52-year-old, single, middle class woman who cannot afford health care. I worry everyday that something will happen to my health that will ruin me financially. I work two part-time jobs and don't get health care from either one. This is not just a problem for "poor" people. It is a problem for all of us. I believe that the purpose of government is to provide for us what we cannot provide for ourselves, like fire and police protection, roads, and health care. Thank you.
I have a friend who waited until she had advanced stage cancer to see a doc. She was afraid she'd be wiped out by the cost of health care. Now there's a good chance she won't be around long enough to fulfill her dream, and she'll leave behind a devastated husband, family and friends embittered by the circumstances that led to her needless suffering and death.
Senator Snowe, I am a Maine physician who has recently left private practice in part due to the expense and administrative burdens of dealing with dozens of insurance companies and in part due to the difficulties of offering equitable care to persons of low income. Please use your position to assure that the Health Care Bill has a PUBLIC OPTION and that this bill is not delayed. We need health care reform now. Thank you.
They're almost all like this - well written, often deeply personal. There's a ton of insight here into our broken health care system and a a great deal of hope that Snowe will take steps to make things better.
More highlights will be up soon on the hc4.me twitter stream.
Send your own free postcard here.
The Club for Growth has launched a new ad campaign urging Senator Snowe to take a conservative tack on health care reform and demonizing democratic health care proposals.
None of their accusations are really true, but the Club isn't exactly known for accuracy, or tact.
In 2003 they launched a similar barrage of ads against Snowe, accusing her of being a "Franco-Republican" for opposing some of President Bush's massive tax cuts.
Obviously, this strategy backfired among the large number of Mainers with French heritage.
My column at Down East this week is about why Snowe will stick with her party, despite Democratic hopes (and overtures).
I also enjoyed this response, from an anonymous commenter:
Unlike Sen. Specter, Sen. Snowe has always been a Republican. And let's not forget that the senator's husband is a Republican. The senator has been a steadfast member of the party from Augusta to Washington, from majority to minority. Although the churlish right wing of the party, which is under the misimpression that it gets to decide who's a Republican, disagrees, the letters "G-O-P" are in Olympia Snowe's DNA. Despite the meanness and name-calling of certain inflexible zealots, the senator is doing just fine. She's got the office and they don't, and she doesn't need to switch parties.
In a statement, Senator Collins takes a very different tone on the Specter switch than her colleague, blaming local politics for the defection rather than an increasingly ideological Republican Party:
"I have great respect for Senator Specter who has worked hard for many years on behalf of the people of Pennsylvania.
"I am, however, extremely surprised and disappointed with his decision to leave the Republican party.
"Senator Specter has long been a leading moderate voice in the Senate, and I believe that his decision is more a reflection of Pennsylvania politics than anything else."
The Huffington Post has more from Snowe, along the same lines as her earlier comments:
"Specter's switch to the Democratic Party "underscores the blunt reality" that the GOP is not a welcome place for moderates, she said.
So far, she said, she's staying put. "I believe in the traditional tenets of the Republican Party: strong national defense, fiscal responsibility, individual opportunity. I haven't abandoned those principles that have been the essence of the Republican Party. I think the Republican Party has abandoned those principles.
She added that being a Republican is simply part of who she is. "It's my ethnic heritage, Spartan side, that continues to fight," she said.
Senator Snowe, quoted by the New York Times reacting to the news that Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania will switch to the Democratic Party:
Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, who also supported the Obama administration’s economic stimulus legislation, said Mr. Specter’s decision reflected the increasingly inhospitable climate in the Republican party for moderates.
"On the national level of the Republican Party, we haven’t certainly heard warm, encouraging words about how they view moderates, either you are with us or against us," Ms. Snowe said. She said national Republican leaders were not grasping that "political diversity makes a party stronger and ultimately we are heading to having the smallest political tent in history for any political party the way things are unfolding."
Update: Politico has a bit more:
Snowe criticized party leadership for failing to change its tone after Republicans lost six Senate seats in the 2006 election.
"I happened to win with 74 percent of the vote in a blue-collar state, but no one asked me, 'How did you do it?'" she said. "Seems to me that would have been the first question that would have come from the Republican Party to find out so we could avoid further losses."
