As I indicated in a previous post, Maine's Junior U.S. Senator Susan Collins was once thought to be the most vulnerable Republican in the upper chamber this year. However, Collins is now apparently doing so well that she is invading Democratic territory. The Lewiston Sunjournal reported today that Collins is trying hard to accomplish her dream of winning Maine's second largest city, Lewiston. This is quite the challenge: 47% of the city's registered voters are Democrats, while just 17% are Republicans. Though Collins lost Lewiston by just two points in 2002, her new opponent, Tom Allen, is far more popular with voters. Yet, Collins suspects that key endorsements by Lewiston's Democratic mayor and the region's political elite will be enough to tip the scales. Though the secret recipe to her success, Collins reports, is really something simple: her pragmatic and bipartisan politics.
Moderate Republicans tended to get trounced in the 2006 midterm elections. Why might Collins's moderate status be helping her this year? Why is Tom Allen having such a hard time making comparisons between Collins and Bush stick?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment