After 33 years in the Congress this was not an easy decision. My husband and I are in good health. We have laid an exceptionally strong foundation for the campaign, and I have no doubt I would have won re-election. It has been an indescribable honor and immeasurable privilege to serve the people of Maine, first in both houses of Maine’s legislature and later in both houses of Congress. To this day, I remain deeply passionate about public service, and I cherish the opportunity I have been given for nearly four decades to help improve the lives of my fellow Mainers.
As I have long said, what motivates me is producing results for those who have entrusted me to be their voice and their champion, and I am filled with that same sense of responsibility today as I was on my first day in the Maine House of Representatives. I do find it frustrating, however, that an atmosphere of polarization and ‘my way or the highway’ ideologies has become pervasive in campaigns and in our governing institutions.
With my Spartan ancestry I am a fighter at heart; and I am well prepared for the electoral battle, so that is not the issue. However, what I have had to consider is how productive an additional term would be. Unfortunately, I do not realistically expect the partisanship of recent years in the Senate to change over the short term. So at this stage of my tenure in public service, I have concluded that I am not prepared to commit myself to an additional six years in the Senate, which is what a fourth term would entail.
Translation: "My party has gone insane. I'm leaving. You guys deal with it." Maine Democrats are happy, if not eager to try to pick up a badly needed seat in order to keep the Senate out of GOP hands.
“As we said from day one, unexpected opportunities will emerge and the DSCC will be in a position to seize on these opportunities," DSCC spokesman Guy Cecil said in a statement. “Maine is now a top pick up opportunity for Senate Democrats. If there is one place in the country that is likely to reject the extreme, anti-middle class, divisive agenda Republican agenda it is Maine. Democrats not only hold a strong registration advantage in the state, but this is a state that the President won by 17 points in 2008 and will likely win by a significant margin this year as well.”
As I said, there's no room for moderates in the GOP for women like Snowe. And if the Tea Party Mainers looking to replace Snowe are anything like this clown, the Dems should have little problem.
I weep not for her. She was a pain in the ass on health care reform and basically extorted tens of billions out of the stimulus package before she voted for it.
Good riddance.
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