Secretary of State Charlie Summers and State Senator Cynthia Dill won their respective primaries last night, filling out the final roster of candidates to fill the U.S. Senate seat of outgoing Senator Olympia Snowe.
Summers rose to the top of a six-way field, finishing with nearly 30% of the vote in an extremely low turnout election. Dill won with approximately 44% in her four-way race, racing neck-in-neck with former Secretary of State Matt Dunlap for most of the night before pulling away at the end.
Summers fought off Maine Treasurer Bruce Poliquin, who trailed close behind Summers for most of the night. In the end, Summers’ dominance in Southern Maine put him over the top.
Poliquin, Scott D’Amboise, and Assistant Senate Majority Leader Deb Plowman appear to have split the Conservative vote, while Summers significantly outperformed his fellow moderates Rick Bennett and Bill Schneider. Schneider finished second-to-last in the six-way race, a disappointing finish for the candidate that carried the support and campaign infrastructure of Olympia Snowe.
Now that the field is set, many believe this race will hinge on whether or not Angus King gets actually vetted, either by the press, his opposing candidates, or third-party political groups. King’s personal relationship with Maine Today Media owner Donald Sussman likely means he’ll get a free pass from at least the southern Maine press, underscoring the importance of fundraising for the other candidates to provide a balanced review of the field.
For once the Republicans ran a strong field with 6 candidates, all of whom would be good Senators. The Dems…being Dems voted for a moon-bat.
So let’s see here who we have running for Olympia’s senate seat. Republican Charlie Summers, a strong, commom sense candidate, “Independent” Angus King, who is in reality just another Democrat who’s already come out publicly and endorsed Obama for re-election, and Democrat Cynthia Dill, liberal loon from Southern Maine. Go Charlie!
Good strategy by Maine Dems to vote in moonbat Dill who will pose no threat to the real Democrat candidate King.
King needs to be exposed for who he really is, which won’t happen in the Pingree People’s Herald. It’s up to us to send Mr. Summers to Washington.
If Bill Schneider “carried the support and campaign infrastructure of Olympia Snowe”, it was the most invisible support and infrastructure in the history of Maine politics.
Les Otten’s op-ed had more positive impact than any support from Olympia’s group… but mostly in the form of dissuading Poliquin voters and steering us to Schneider.
Bill Schneider’s dismal performance is not a reflection on the quality of the candidate as much as a reinforcement of the fact that a candidate has to have visibility and a clear message. One more example of “name recognition” gathers more votes than a compelling message or the candidate’s philosophy, key principles or core values.
Charlie Summers is a good candidate and is compelling compared with Dill or King.. but Charlie, like Mit Romney, started out with a clear advantage in name recognition and a better campaign; a credit to Kathie Summers-Grice… good job.
Summers has a shot. Dill will draw off the porkland liberal whack jobs and the alt-lifestyle set in southern Maine. This will level the field somewhat for Summers.
The republican national will pump in substantial cash owing to the senate majority hanging in the balance. We are not talking chump change here and in Maine, ad dollars actually go a long way when compared to the cost of campaiging in other states. This will help mitigate the sussman lib-news bias effect that I am confident will only intensify.
Charlie has strengths. He presents a good image in the media. In advertising, appearence is everything. He has a moderate appeal politically. This will draw the independents many of whom see wind King as an old tired out of state liberal with a new paint job. If Charlie can capatialize on the failed obamer track record and the firestorm surrounding the perverse sodomy based marriage campaign he just might win this thing.
Summers, US Senator 2012.
Not much changes, Watcher, all solid conservative candidates on the right and moon-bat socialists on the left. Hopefully, King and Dill will split the progressives vote much like Cutler did to allow LePage to become the terrific leader he has become as governor.
I hope Charlie will be aware of the 30% who voted for staunch conservative,Bruce Poliquin,and why. I don’t want Charlie to be another Olympia Snowe(…why …can’t…we..all…just…get…along..sob). The more compromise the more mischief the Dems can perpetrate on our country,because it will only be THE REPUBLICANS who compromise! Don’t fall for it !
Make Mainers proud of their Senator,Charlie!!!
Whoops. Bruce had 23% not 30. Sorry Charlie. But I still mean what I said above.
Any truth to the rumor that Cynthia Dill believes she is 1/128 Native American?
WAKE UP CALL…..
Wall St. vote: Romney by landslide By: Abby Phillip and Kenneth P. Vogel
Thanks to campaign finance filings, it’s possible to put a price tag on just
how much Wall Street doesn’t like Obama. Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign
and the super PAC supporting it are outraising Obama among financial sector
donors $37.1 million to $4.8 million.
more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0612/77368.html
except 57% of those who voted, voted Republican….bring on the LOONBATS!
None; she’s just another overgrown invasive species whose HUFF. POST blog reveals all any Maine voter wants to know about her ‘agenda’.
Had a long chat with a political insider yesterday about how we’d advise/program Charlie if we were running his campaign. A few conclusions:
>Angus and Dill split the vote in liberal enclaves, easily determined by using the voting map for Cutler supporters.
>Dill will make this about electing a ‘woman’ to high office, just like Obama did with his ‘Black president’ theme. Angus is a patrician and really doesn’t share power well with women; so what does Charlie do?
Mobilizes female republicans like Carol Weston and Burgess who share his political themes to work with his wife in doing f2f campaigning in these districts.
>Charlie should avoid appealing to veterans groups, not that many votes way too many independents and non-vets to spend time preaching to the choir. The women’s vote will approach 60%; that’s where the votes are and they are reachable at the workplace and socially via parent and critical interest groups.
>Charlie’s small business background needs to be brought to life, not just a paragraph in a brochure. I would make the enterprises he helped fund the cornerstone of his campaign; and lining up as many as possible where he can put on genuine working clothes and work along side of the people who were employed. Not only would this highlight job development, but showcase new and innovative products and services that could grow even larger.
He’s a guy; so do garages, Moody’s, organic farms; shadow Les Fossel for a day, shadow Doug Thomas and split some cord wood, work intake at a Hospital E.R…..jobs that every Mainer understands…shatter his ‘stuffed shirt’ image, and challenge Dill to do the same by working along side of women doing men’s jobs.
I don’t believe Angus every did door knocking, unless it was Cutler or some society event. The independents need a reason to vote for Charlie and highlighting King as a 5 percenter….not quite 1 % but yearning to break into the big bucks.
>Charlie can’t speak worth a dime; while Dill is highly articulate and Angus is a witty, charming speaker—-he made brunch out of Mike Violette on WGAN this morning, who gets standing applause from every group I’ve seen him speak to WITHOUT NOTES. Not sure you can train him to not trip over words or stutter through long sentences, But he can be equipped with clever sound bites, quips, and other bon mottes, to weave into his experience and accomplishments.
Example, Mike asked Angus about his nearly $10k to the re-elect Obama campaign and Angus said he really liked the guy, and couldn’t be bought. Bang another home run and Violette meekly gave up.
Charlie’s competing against a public policy talk show host with 25 yrs. experience and later as governor and then a national speaker; and against a HUFF Post blogger who is both quippy and snarky.
Avoid debates or only participate in ones with submitted questions. free wheeling sessions with audience questions will show him at his worse.
Surely there must be someone who can improve the ‘KING’s SPEECH’ and turn our uniformed bumpkin into a mesmerizing public speaker who can articulate a solid record of accomplishments and criticize his two opponents in a way that charms women and wins the respect of fence sitting independents.
Any suggestions?