Free Republic

In the Maine Senate race, both Democrats and conservative Republicans have their eye on Sen. Olympia Snowe's (R-Maine) seat, but so far, no top contender from either side has emerged, and there does not appear to be an obvious candidate-in-waiting in sight, according to observers and operatives in the state. During a recent briefing, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Patty Murray identified Maine as a possible Democratic pickup opportunity in 2012. Conservative Republicans too, would also like to unseat the moderate senator. She's attracted two GOP challengers to her right -- Maine Tea Party Patriots head Andrew Ian Dodge and...

Washington (CNN) – Though Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe hasn't drawn a Democratic challenger yet, she's plenty prepared for a re-election battle. According to fundraising numbers for the first quarter released Monday, Maine's third term senator has over $2 million in cash on hand. Snowe raised $877,019 in the first quarter of 2011 and spent $62,433 on her 2012 U.S. Senate campaign. She will report $2,050,053 in cash on hand 17 months before the Senate election, according to numbers released by her office. Snowe for Senate Treasurer Rick Bennett said, "It's a good start for her campaign fundraising effort. The total...

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) may be in the sights of Tea Party activists ahead of 2012, but the Utah Republican has given help to two of his Senate colleagues who face conservative primary challengers themselves. Hatch's political action committee — OrrinPAC — donated to both Sens. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) during the first quarter of the year, according to the PAC's March filing with the Federal Election Commission. Both Republicans are Tea Party targets in 2012. Hatch's PAC donated $1,000 each to Lugar and Snowe in February. Asked about the donations, Hatch campaign manager Dave Hansen said...

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) may have the support of Maine's Tea Party-backed governor in her reelection bid, but she could still be in for a tough primary battle next year. New numbers from Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling (PPP) show 58 percent of Maine Republicans prefer a generic "more conservative" alternative to Snowe in 2012. And just 33 percent of Maine Republicans said they will support her. According to the poll, 58 percent of Republicans in the state think Snowe is too liberal, while another 33 percent don't even think she belongs in the GOP, saying she should be a Democrat.

At a hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee today examining job loss in the manufacturing industry, U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) pressed U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Gary Locke on the critical imperative to assess the adverse affects of proposed rules on the paper industry. Senator Snowe, who asserted the paper industry is a cornerstone of America's manufacturing sector, insisted the Department do a better job of understanding the implications of proposed regulations on job creation.

Washington (CNN) – Still swaggering after its recent electoral successes, the Tea Party movement appears to be growing more emboldened as it tries to blaze a path to power. One new bold move: An activist group is publicly parading a list of lawmakers the group is determined to oust from office. On Thursday, the Tea Party Express added two more names to its "2012 Tea Party Target List" - Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine. (snip) "Olympia Snowe dishonors the notion that the Republican Party is supposed to be the fiscally conservative, constitutionalist...

(RTTNews) - A prominent Tea Party group sent a message to members on Monday identifying five current Republican Senators that they intend to target in 2012. Tea Party Nation named Sens. Dick Lugar, R-Ind., Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, Scott Brown, R-Mass., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., as Republicans that need to be sent into retirement, accusing them of being Republicans In Name Only, or RINOs. The message cited Lugar's vote against a ban on earmarks as well as a his votes in favor of the DREAM Act and the START Treaty. Hatch was also criticized for being a "pork...

What can I say about Maine’s Senators that you don’t already know? Yes, they voted to ratify the dangerous New START Treaty and they failed to research Russia’s alliance with countries like Iran, China, North Korea and Venezuela. To ensure Senator Collins’ vote in support of the treaty, it appears she received a letter according to the Washington Post: “For example, concern was ignited across Europe recently when stories appeared about Russia moving tactical nuclear weapons near the border of NATO countries. During last week's Senate treaty debate, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates...

It's that time of the year when numerous organizations and news outlets publish or announce their "Best of..." or "Worst of..." or "Most important of..." or "Most popular of..." lists. Not to be outdone by the so-called elite media, below is a list from an industrious public-interest group whose sole mission is to investigate and prosecute government corruption wherever it is discovered. On Thursday, Judicial Watch released its 2010 list of Washington's “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians.” While there may be some surprises, readers will note that neither political party has a monopoly on political corruption. Special thanks to Judicial...

Her DADT and START votes are now a bridge too far. Health Care flirtations and Financial reform gave me indigestion, as did earmarks, but this is as serious as it gets: aiding and abetting our political opponents in an unprecedented un-Americam un-democratic lame-duck cram-down. Those votes make Oly my personal number one electoral target now for 2012. I cannot take the unreliability any more. I would rather see a (D) there from ME (as with CT) than sweat whether she can be wheedled and coerced to see things Rightly. Somebody please tell me where should I be place my online...

The Senate voted 67-28 to pass a cloture motion, seemingly enough to assure final ratification. Eleven Republicans joined with 56 Democrats to pass the cloture motion. It will take 67 votes to ratify the New Start pact, which would give the Obama administration its top foreign policy goal in the lame-duck session. Among Republicans announcing their support were Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, George V. Voinovich of Ohio, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker of Tennessee, Johnny Isakson of Georgia, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, and...

U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, says she's willing to support the repeal of the military's ban on openly gay service members. In a prepared statement, Snowe said that she will vote for a new stand-alone bill co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, that would eliminate the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. The policy, enacted in 1993, keeps gay and lesbian servicemen and servicewomen from serving openly in the military. (snip) U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., who co-sponsored the repeal with Collins, indicated that Snowe's support would give the bill the 60 votes it needs to pass to avoid a...

Not only do supporters of the repeal have reason to celebrate today because of the House of Representatives’ vote in favor of a stand-alone bill to repeal the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, but also because the chances of the bill passing the Senate improved when Republican Olympia Snowe of Maine said she will support it. “After careful analysis of the comprehensive report compiled by the Department of Defense and thorough consideration of the testimony provided by the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the service chiefs, I support repeal of the Don’t...

Senator Snowe has recently come under criticism from conservatives, who say she's not conservative enough. LePage, who's a favorite among the die-hard conservatives in Maine, says he'll continue to support Snowe, who -- along with her late husband Peter Snowe -- helped a young LePage get into Husson College. Growing up, LePage only spoke French and not much English, so Peter Snowe helped LePage take Husson's entrance exams in French, opening the door to his education that put him on the track leading him to business success, and now the Blaine House.

The Portland (Maine) Press-Herald reports that both of Maine's senators -- Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins -- are signing on to a friend-of-the-court brief in support of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the new health-care law. The brief was initiated by U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and boasts the signatures of 30 Senate Republicans. The lawsuit was brought by the attorneys general for several states and the National Federation of Independent Businesses, a small-business trade organization. At issue is a requirement that U.S. citizens purchase health insurance beginning in 2014 or face a fine --...

Another bloody Republican Senate primary election season is taking shape for 2012, with potentially serious intra-party challenges percolating in close to a half-dozen states. Polls indicate that at least two veteran GOP senators are highly vulnerable to challenges on their right flank — Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch and Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe – and there are rumblings about potential GOP bids against Nevada Sen. John Ensign, Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Indiana Sen. Dick Lugar as well. On the whole, the 2012 map looks extremely promising for the GOP. After posting a six-seat gain in 2010, Republicans are in...

Republicans last week painted the country's northeastern corner red last week, grabbing control of the state House, Senate and governor's mansion in Maine for the first time in more than four decades in a stunning electoral sweep. But the GOP wins might be worrisome news for the state's GOP senior senator, opening up the possibility of a 2012 primary challenge to moderate three-term Sen. Olympia J. Snowe now that state voters have shown that a fiscal conservative can win in a statewide contest. "There is going to be a primary, and she is going to have at least one 'tea...

The Maine Republican senator says most Mainers and most Americans want policies that come from the center, not from the far right or far left. Polls show Republicans, energized by the tea party movement, could sweep Democrats out of power in the U.S. House and gain on them in the Senate. In Maine, a new poll out today, shows GOP candidate Dean Scontras gaining on Democratic incumbent Congresswoman Chellie Pingree. But Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe says most Mainers, and most Americans, want policies that come from the center, not from the far right, or the far left: "I understand...

The Maine Republican senator says like the telephone, the Internet is a basic service that everyone should have access to. Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe says she favors expanding the reach of a "fee" that's been charged for years on telephone customers. Snowe and other members of Congress support adding the fee to cable and wireless phone bills to raise money to assure broadband Internet access in rural areas. "I've been a big advocate of making sure that rural communities have access to broadband," she says. "Because it's similar to telephone service, and what the Telecommunications Act was all about...

Tea-party activists, keen to build on their success toppling GOP incumbents in primaries this year, are already targeting more Republican veterans in the 2012 election. GOP senators like Bob Corker, above, have drawn criticism from tea-party activists for some of the positions they have taken over the years. Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, one of the most liberal Republicans in Congress, already has a conservative GOP primary opponent. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah), Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) and Sen. Richard Lugar (R., Indiana) have all drawn fire from the right wing of their party. Tea-party activists have put these...