Posted on 09/13/2010 2:09:24 PM PDT by speciallybland
Last November, right after she supported the health care bill in committee, we found that 59% of Maine Republicans wanted to replace Olympia Snowe with someone more conservative while only 31% said they would support her again in 2012.
The passage of 10 months hasn't done much to soften the ill will toward Snowe with members of her own party. Now 63% of them say they would support a more conservative alternative with only 29% saying they're committed to Snowe.
Moderate Republicans love Snowe. They give her a 70% approval rating and a strong majority say they'd vote to nominate her for another term. But those folks make up only 30% of the GOP electorate in Maine. It's now dominated by conservatives and they're particularly negative toward her, giving her just a 26% approval rating and saying by a 78-15 margin they'd like to trade her out for someone to the right.
When PPP first did this poll on Snowe in November many argued that there was no viable conservative who could challenge her in the primary. The success of the highly flawed Christine O'Donnell in Delaware may say something about whether insurgent Republicans actually need to be particularly good candidates on paper to get some momentum. But we did find that Snowe trails even a named Republican challenger, 2006 Gubernatorial nominee Chandler Woodcock, by a 38-33 margin in a hypothetical contest.
Ultimately Snowe's issues come down to ideology. 64% of folks within her own party think she's too liberal. Unless the Tea Party fervor really dies down between now and 2012 she sure doesn't look likely to win nomination for another term as a Republican.
Looking ahead to the 2012 Presidential race in the state Mitt Romney not surprisingly leads with 27% to 21% for Sarah Palin, 15% for Newt Gingrich, 14% for Mike Huckabee, and 7% for Ron Paul. Romney has looked solid in all of the polling we've done in New England to date.
Removing Snowe from the senate would be a dream come true.
I hope the votes there keep the thought for two more years.
Time to remove this Snowe with sand and salt!
As I've said before, the idea isn't to get rid of RINO's, but to marginalize them when we get a majority. We need her and Collins, because the alternative is MARX and LENIN. After all, they may vote wrong 50% of the time, but they vote right 50%, too.
Let's vote in as many conservatives where we can, especially from conservative states. Unfortunately, Maine is no longer conservative in national races.
I have been saying on the Deleware threads that the credible, demonstrable threat of an ugly primary fight for any RINO that breaks ranks will be worth the possibility of not picking up the seat in Deleware. This post just proves my point. If Snowe wants to save her seat she is going to have to break hard right for the next two years. It is either that or not run for reelection, and either way we get what we want. After what happened to Jeffords and Specter switching parties probably doesn’t look like so much fun either.
Actually there are, but they would need a two-person race and a strong candidate as standard-bearer.
A great part of the problem conservatives have had in Maine is a lack of good candidates to lead the way. LePage is a miracle.
then may I suggest that Maine elects another slightly more conservative RINO. That way Snow loses her seniority status and RINOs realize that they may be there for only a limited time.
As conservatives we should muck up the works as much as possible for the progressives.
My desire would be that each RINO, especially feel the sting of the conservatives, even if it means a marginally more conservative person. If given a choice between a RINO with seniority or a RINO freshman, then I'm for getting rid of every single "senior" legislative "giant" that we have on our team that is a RINO.
I think we should spread the word and just show the solons feeding at the Republican trough that we would appreciate it if you voted as Republicans as opposed to reaching across the aisle and stabbing us in the back.
I wonder if she’ll become a Democrat (take Collins and Leslie with you)
Conservatives need to heavily—HEAVILY—fund the person who is challenging her in the 2012 primary. The pressure will keep Snowe scared enough to tow our line until then, just as it has with McCain this year.
A reminder that "moderate Republicans" is MSM code for RINO. Snowe and Collins are invariably described as "moderate Republicans" as in fact they are the very most liberally rated Republicans in the Senate.
If Maine wants Dems, why don’t they just vote for them. Rinos are not the way to go.
She has two years to smell the TEA that’s brewing. If she fails to come around to right thinking she’ll be given every opportunity to defend her liberal record in a primary contest.
You are correct. In fact you can take any Upper West Side-media description and shift it to the left one notch on the political spectrum to get closer to the truth. For example, a person they call "ultra-conservative" is really just conservative (if not farther left), their "conservative" is really a moderate, their "moderate" is really liberal and their "liberal" - not that they EVER use that word - is really an ultra-liberal nutjob.
Also, these self-described "moderates" who approve so highly of Senator Snowe are, like "moderates" everywhere, simply liberals who are too gutless to admit that fact - either to a pollster or to themselves.
Yes, and I think this November we will see lots of conservatives elected to state and local offices in Maine. Certainly a lot more than in the past.
According to the poll 70% of the Maine GOP are conservatives, 30% are moderates. The fact that you don’t hear about the conservatives is due to the media, not reality.
Liberal RINOs with MSM protection.
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