Tuesday, November 10, 2009

We All Scream For Snowe Creamed

Public Policy Polling decided to run a poll of Republicans in Maine pitting Olympia Snowe versus an unnamed, generic conservative Republican in the primary. Everyone was pretty sure she's untouchable in Maine because of her centrist positions.

Not in the Hoffman Era.

The numbers: Conservative challenger 59%, Snowe 31%, with a ±4.8% margin of error. It is of course a long way from the idea of a generic conservative challenger to having an actual candidate, but the potential for success by just such an insurgent is certainly there.

Snowe's overall approval is 51%, to 36% disapproval. Democrats approve of her by 60%-29%, Republicans disapprove by 40%-46%, and independents approve by 51%-33%.

The pollster's analysis notes the importance of her vote for a health care bill in the Senate Finance Committee: "Snowe's numbers are steady with independents but down with both Democrats and Republicans compared to three weeks ago, an indication of the perilous political position she finds herself in. Republicans are mad at her for supporting any Democratic bill, while Democrats still are not completely happy with her because of her hesitance to support a public option."

If you always walk down the middle of the road, you're eventually going to get run over. It seems our Snowe Queen has managed to piss off not only Maine Republicans, but Democrats as well. That can't bode very well for her in 2012, and she may just get Scozzafavaed right off the ticket in the Pine Tree State.

Gosh, that would be a shame.

3 comments:

  1. She's up for election in 2012, not 2010. I'm more worried about what she does in the meantime than her standing within the party, the more they demonize her the less beholden she is to the party and the less there is to keep her from just giving a nice "fuck you" vote on behalf of health care (which she is more supportive of than our favorite independent Senator).

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  2. There is also that. She just may decide that her way out that she needs to burn everything on the other side of those bridges, and not just the bridges.

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  3. If you wanted to, you could basically shut down the Senate as a single Senator... maybe then we would get some changes in the arcane way this incredibly important house of the government is run.

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