WSJ: Maine's Susan Collins Faces Tough Re-Election Race This November
Boo-hoo!
WASHINGTON—The polarized political climate is taking a toll on Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine), who is facing a competitive race for the first time since she won a Senate seat in 1996, according to a new poll conducted after her closely watched votes in President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial.
Some 42% of respondents to a Colby College poll said that they would vote for Ms. Collins in November, compared with 43% who said they would vote for her expected Democratic rival, Sara Gideon, Maine’s House speaker. Ms. Collins won her seat with close to or more than 60% of the vote for each of the past three contests after winning in 1996 with less than 50% of the vote.
“We’re not used to seeing Sen. Collins in a tight race,” said Dan Shea, a Colby professor of government and the lead researcher on the poll. “American politics has taken a dramatic turn in the last four to six years, and the broader question is whether or not the nationalization of American politics has spread to Maine as well.”
Ms. Collins is one of a handful of Republican incumbents Democrats are hoping to unseat in November as they make a push for the majority. Democrats would need to take four additional seats to achieve control of the Senate, or three seats if Democrats also win the White House and have the vice president to break ties in the chamber.
Contributing to the headwinds that face Ms. Collins are the pair of votes she has taken over the past year and a half, including one to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court after he was accused of sexual assault during his high-school years, allegations he denied. Among women, 36% said that they would vote for Ms. Collins, compared with 49% who said they would support Ms. Gideon. Ms. Collins’s support among women younger than 50 was even worse, with 25% saying that they would vote for her, compared with 56% who said they would support Ms. Gideon.
“She is hemorrhaging women voters,” Mr. Shea said. “We weren’t quite sure of the impact that the Kavanaugh vote would have on her brand, but it’s really popped up in this poll.”
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | March 5, 2020 10:12 PM
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Ms. Collins’s handling of the Senate impeachment trial is also undermining support for her among independents, who make up about 40% of Maine’s electorate. Overall, 49% of respondents said she made the right decision to keep Mr. Trump in office, while 50% said she made the wrong decision.
Among independents, however, 39% said that they would be less likely to vote for her as a result of her decision to acquit the president, compared with 13% who said that they would be more likely to vote for her. Ms. Collins aimed to walk a careful line during the trial, leading an arrangement that could have allowed for witnesses to testify. That approach appears to have been eclipsed by her ultimate decision to acquit Mr. Trump of two articles of impeachment.
“The impeachment vote was really significant,” Mr. Shea said. “What happened for a lot of independents is I think that many were looking for a Mitt Romney moment, and they didn’t get it,” he said, referring to Sen. Romney’s decision to vote in favor of convicting Mr. Trump of abuse of power. “Her problem on the impeachment vote is really linked to this turning away of the president among independents.”
Mr. Trump’s favorability rating stood at 39% in the poll, compared with 60% who had an unfavorable view of him. Ms. Collins had a 42% favorability rating, compared with 54% who viewed her unfavorably.
Still, Ms. Collins has a long history of working behind the scenes to deliver important benefits for Maine, using her perch on the Senate Appropriations Committee to steer money to the state and her status as a swing vote as leverage to win concessions benefiting Maine, such as she did during negotiations on the 2017 tax law.
“She is a strong campaigner,” Mr. Shea said. “This is far from over.”
The poll surveyed 1,008 registered Maine voters from Feb. 10 through Feb. 13. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points. It is the first of a series of polls that Colby and pollster SocialSphere plan to conduct between now and the November elections.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | February 18, 2020 9:35 PM
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I’m thrilled. She is a coward and props up appalling political forces, plus is utterly annoying. There is no downside to her losing, r2.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | February 18, 2020 9:53 PM
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OP you buried the damn lede:
Gideon 43%, Collins 42%
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | February 18, 2020 10:11 PM
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It's been obvious since her Kavanaugh vote that Collins would lose re-election this year. With each new horrid vote she takes, the inevitability of her becoming the next high paid former politician turned DC lobbyist becomes clearer.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | February 18, 2020 10:24 PM
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New poll shows Sara Gideon leading Susan Collins by 47% to 43%
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | March 5, 2020 10:01 PM
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Throw water on this bitch and make her disappear!
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | March 5, 2020 10:11 PM
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Susan Collins, we hardly knew ye. But hardly was more than enough.
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | March 5, 2020 10:12 PM
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