Posted on 09/20/2010 9:27:31 AM PDT by freespirited
The Tea Party effect may have hit Maine’s sometimes-liberal Republican Senator Olympia Snowe on Friday as a new Public Policy Polling poll suggested she might have to consider running as a Democrat in 2012 if she wants to keep her job – something that conservative Scott D’Amboise, who announced his candidacy back in February, is jumping at.
In a phone interview with The Daily Caller, D’Amboise said the poll illustrates Maine conservatives’ disappointment with Snowe’s voting record and that he isn’t surprised that Snowe’s popularity among Maine Democrats is growing. He said he’d “definitely” call Snowe a RINO, or Republican in Name Only.
“Realistically, she’d be very hard to beat as an independent or a Democrat,” D’Amboise said. “A lot of Republicans in the state are upset with her voting record and what has happened over the past few terms she has served. Conservative Republicans, in particular, and conservative independents are looking to make a change and feel that they have lost confidence in her ability to, especially on the Republican side, stay on the more conservative side.”
Snowe was the only Republican member of the Senate
Finance Committee to vote in favor of Obamacare. Though she didn’t vote for the final version of the bill in December 2009, it was Snowe’s vote that got the bill over its final hurdles and onto the Senate floor.
D’Amboise held just one political office in his life: He was a town selectman for one term, and didn’t run for re-election because he had promised his community he wouldn’t. He also ran and lost in a Republican primary for one of Maine’s two congressional representative seats.
D’Amboise launched his current senatorial campaign more than two years before the 2012 election because he said Snowe’s connections and financial backers are going to be tough to beat.
“She hasn’t had anyone run against her in the primary ever, except maybe for her first term,” D’Amboise said. “No one would dare challenge her.”
He said Snowe has a “political machine” behind her and he needs to be ready for a rough race over the next couple years.
D’Amboise said disappointment with Snowe runs deep in Maine, and he attributes it to more than just her voting record – and it extends to the state’s congressional representatives and Senator Susan Collins.
“They don’t come and talk to us,” D’Amboise said. “Not one of them held a town meeting last year. Not one town meeting. They don’t listen to ‘We the People.’”
D’Amboise’s campaign, at this point, is volunteer-only and isn’t in full swing yet, because he doesn’t want to take the momentum away from the state’s ongoing gubernatorial and congressional races. But, his supporters are working on making sure he’s got a shot come 2012.
Erin Foglietta, a graphic designer in Maine volunteering for D’Amboise’s campaign, created his website, because she believes in his message and is fed up with Snowe’s lack of dependability.
“I know that he [D’Amboise] is a genuine person and wants to take government back to something that is trustworthy,” Foglietta told TheDC in a phone interview.
Foglietta said D’Amboise’s early announcement for candidacy is a way for him to be ready to roll when the time comes.
Paul Trommer, an active conservative in the state, said Maine’s “welfare-friendly” rating is unbelievable and he thinks D’Amboise will be able to fix it.
“We’re a welfare basket-case,” Trommer told TheDC in a phone interview. “Maine has instant welfare. For instance, if you show up, get off the bus, you instantly have welfare.”
Trommer said people come to Maine from New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and Massachusetts and elsewhere to get free health care, because, he said, the state’s long-term influence from Democrats and RINOs has badly affected the system. “In Bangor, we wonderful medical facilities, with two hospitals,” Trommer said. “We have people coming in on the bus and they’ll walk in for medical treatment and they have to be treated.”
Foglietta wouldn’t even call Snowe a RINO.
“I’d classify her [Snowe] as a Democrat, a liberal Democrat,” Foglietta told TheDC.
Foglietta has both noticed a more active conservative voter base in Maine.
“I’ve noticed an upwards swing of rallies up here,” Foglietta said. “I think it’s because people are starting to pay attention.”
D’Amboise hasn’t yet reached out to Sarah Palin’s Tea Party Express or Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks, but said he plans to look for some more organized help after the November midterm elections are over.
Snowe didn’t return phone calls or voicemails from TheDC seeking comment.
Perhaps Murkowski would comment.
In the words of Captain James T. Picard, “Make it so.”
Olympia Snowe is going to announce she will retire before the primary and finish January 2013. I seriously believe this. Write down this date because you will need it to say “you were right”. lol.
... And is it really out of the question that Snowe could move to the right to counter? That would seem to be the easiest choice.
face a tough primary or a tough election. Your choice.
Her name is easier to spell than Murcowskii, but would write-in ballots count if they leave off the “e”?
Announcing she is a Democrat would be the first honest words out of her mouth in a long time.
Unnnngggggh.
You may be right. When does Collins come up for reelection?
Maine senators key to Don’t Ask vote
Pro-repeal activists say they don’t have enough votes yet.
All eyes are on Maine as gay-rights groups try to repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
The state’s senators could cast the deciding votes for cloture on the issue. Activists say they don’t yet have enough votes to overcome a filibuster of the defense-bill amendment, which would remove a 17-year-old law that bans openly gay Americans from serving in the military.
“The votes to break McCain’s filibuster are not there,” said Aubrey Sarvis of Servicememebers Legal Defense Network, which sent Lady Gaga to Maine Monday to organize a rally and pressure the state’s senators.
Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe are Republicans, but the activists believe that both Maine lawmakers could succumb to pressure and back the repeal. Collins and Snowe worked with Democrats on health care and environmental issues earlier this year.
Catholics for Equality, a pro-repeal religious group, could play a key role in the lobbying effort.
The group met with religious lawmakers on Friday to convince them that the repeal would not violate their faith. Collins is Catholic, and Snowe is Greek Orthodox.
“Speaking out as pro-equality Catholics is so important to the legislative process,” activist Patsy Trujillo said.
In case the Maine duo votes against repeal, Human Rights Campaign has also been pressuring Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), George Voinovich (R-Ohio), and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) to back cloture.
Meanwhile, conservative groups led by the Center for Military Readiness have been calling lawmakers to ensure that their side has the 41 votes needed to make the filibuster work.
The debate is expected to begin on the Senate floor Tuesday.
That's one of the funniest things I've seen in print in a long time. Thanks for the laugh!
Snowe was the “stealth” DemocRAT in the Senate. They only trot her out to vote Socialist when they need her. If they needed a second vote, they call Collins.
National Review reported last week that they have heard she will jump to Independent...and soon.
Granted, but I just dont see it happening. She and her husband have been involved in GOP politics for too long.
Collins is up in 2014
I have already done my list for 2012 and 19 Dems are up and 10 Repubs. Two seats will add to this list with the outcome of the NY and WV specials this year.
The 10 are;
1. John Kyl
2. Richard Lugar
3. Olympia Snowe
4. Scott Brown
5. Roger Wicker
6. John Ensign
7. Bob Coker
8. Kay Bailey Hutchingson
9. Orin Hatch
10. John Barrasso
Tell me where to send my contribution.
No Snowe in 2012!
That didn’t stop Jeffords now, did it?
So: Who do you think the RNSC would back. Snowe or a Conservative?
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