Maine US Senate race: Shenna Bellows vs. Susan Collins (Incumbent)

Politics & Elections
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But from a political strategy perspective, it won’t work in a place like Maine. If you’re against Obama, why would you vote for anyone but Susan Collins?

2sense is right in that the best way to beat Susan Collins is to tie her to Mitch McConnell. Running against an administration policy just means competing with Susan Collins for anti-Obama voters. Works fine in a state like Louisiana, where most people are anti-Obama voters and the Democrat has no choice but to compete for them. Not in Maine, where I’d bet Obama is above 50% and there has to be some candidate running there who wants to be associated with him.

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Politics aren’t monolithic. Just because Collins is of the other major party from Obama doesn’t mean that she opposes his stance on the NSA. In fact, until Obama came out in favor of the NSA, most Republicans were for it. So if one opposes Obama on this particular issue, it can make more sense to vote for the candidate of his same party, not the other party.