Brown may have been backed by the Tea Party in MA, but he never pretended to be a solid conservative. MA has over 50 % registered independents, 38 % rats and just 11 % GOP. Maine now has a GOP governor and legislature. Snowe should be primaried, IMHO. The result in the 2012 general election should determine whether Collins gets primaried in 2014, IMHO.
Snowe was not backed by the Tea Party and neither was Collins. Here is the list of TEA PARTY backed candidates..some did not vote for any and some did...A list of Tea Party Caucus members and their earmark requests in Fiscal Year 2010, courtesy of Citizens Against Government Waste’s Pig Book:
NAME EARMARKS AMOUNTAderholt (R-AL) 69 $78,263,000Akin (R-MO) 9 $14,709,000Alexander (R-LA) 41 $65,395,000Bachmann (R-MN) 0 0Barton (R-TX) 14 $12,269,400Bartlett (R-MD) 19 $43,060,650Bilirakis (R-FL) 14 $13,600,000R. Bishop (R-UT) 47 $93,980,000Burgess (R-TX) 15 $15,804,400Broun (R-GA) 0 0Burton (R-IN) 0 0Carter (R-TX) 26 $42,232,000Coble (R-NC) 19 $18,755,000Coffman (R-CO) 0 0Crenshaw (R-FL) 37 $54,424,000Culberson (R-TX) 22 $33,792,000Fleming (R-LA) 10 $31,489,000Franks (R-AZ) 8 $14,300,000Gingrey (R-GA) 19 $16,100,000Gohmert (R-TX) 15 $7,099,000S. Graves (R-MO) 11 $8,331,000R. Hall (R-TX) 16 $12,232,000Harper (R-MS) 25 $80,402,000Herger (R-CA) 5 $5,946,000Hoekstra (R-MI) 9 $6,392,000Jenkins (R-KS) 12 $24,628,000S. King (R-IA) 13 $6,650,000Lamborn (R-CO) 6 $16,020,000Luetkemeyer (R-MO) 0 0Lummis (R-WY) 0 0Marchant (R-TX) 0 0McClintock (R-CA) 0 0Gary Miller (R-CA) 15 $19,627,500Jerry Moran (R-KS) 22 $19,400,000Myrick (R-NC) 0 0Neugebauer (R-TX) 0 0Pence (R-IN) 0 0Poe (R-TX) 12 $7,913,000T. Price (R-GA) 0 0Rehberg (R-MT) 88 $100,514,200Roe (R-TN) 0 0Royce (R-CA) 7 $6,545,000Scalise (R-LA) 20 $17,388,000P. Sessions (R-TX) 0 0Shadegg (R-AZ) 0 0Adrian Smith (R-NE) 1 $350,000L. Smith (R-TX) 18 $14,078,000Stearns (R-FL) 17 $15,472,000Tiahrt (R-KS) 39 $63,400,000Wamp (R-TN) 14 $34,544,000Westmoreland (R-GA) 0 0Wilson (R-SC) 15 $23,334,000TOTAL 764 $1,049,783,150