maine

David Hart has the scoop: The National Organization for Marriage spent more than $100,000 on get-out-the-vote efforts for the failed (yes, really) campaign of Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate in NY-23. NOM’s work for Hoffman — it also paid for hand-outs distributed by the Susan B. Anthony List — was a minor blow to [...]

“They were massively outspent in both states,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, “and it always takes a few tries to win these things.”

This Public Policy Polling survey of Maine isn’t all that surprising: She has a 46/40 disapproval/approval rating from state Republicans. By a whopping 27 points, those same Republicans say they’d back a “conservative challenger” to Snowe in the 2012 GOP primary. Voters who picked the McCain-Palin ticket in 2008 and self-identified conservatives all oppose Snowe [...]

Eric Kleefeld and Matthew Yglesias point out something that hasn’t gotten too much attention. There were two-anti tax measures on the ballot yesterday in Maine and in Washington state. In Maine, the measure failed by 20 points, and in Washington it failed by 10 points. The momentum is actually against the anti-tax movement — a [...]

Earlier this month, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Maine raised plenty of eyebrows when it sued the state for refusing to grant an 18.5 percent premium hike on 12,000 individual policy holders — an increase that would have generated a 3 percent profit margin for the company. Instead, Maine’s insurance superintendent granted a 10.9 [...]

Buried in this poll on Maine political attitudes is a question on the Nov. 3 same-sex marriage referendum that does not auger well for gay marriage opponents. Question 1, which would roll back legal gay marriage in the state, is trailing 52-43. Catholic voters support the measure, but only by a seven-point margin. Last month, [...]

Democrat challenger Tom Allen and Republican Sen. Susan Collins are bickering again over their respective attendance records in Maine’s Senate race.
Allen called on Collins earlier this week during a debate to stop airing an advertisement, not posted online, that raises questions about his commitment to Maine and the number of bills he has voted on [...]