Is The Maine Republican Party Imploding?

Typical Republican vote counting shenanigans, normally used against Democrats to subvert free and fair elections, are being used by the GOP Establishment against the Republicans running against Romney, the Establishment candidate. Tuesday night, Maddow demonstrated that quite graphically (above), particularly how the Party seems to have stolen an apparent Maine victory for Ron Paul and awarded it to Willard.

But while Maine Republican Party officials were trying to wipe the blueberry pie off their fat faces, they were also busy losing another special election for a state legislative seat-- to a Democrat. Lincoln County has a slight GOP registration advantage but has been trending Democratic in the last decade, at least in presidential elections. State Senate district 20 is basically all of Lincoln County except Dresden plus the towns of Windsor (in Kennebec Co.), Washington and Friendship (both in Knox Co). The Republican-held Senate seat opened up when Republican David Trahan, resigned in December to become executive director of the state Sportman’s Alliance.

Tuesday Democrat Chris Johnson beat Republican state Rep. Dana Dow for the seat, a major upset for a Maine Republican Party that is riven with disputes between the governor's extremist Tea Party faction and the more mainstream conservatives behind Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. Dow had been widely touted as the frontrunner but the final vote was 3368 for Johnson to 2902 for Dow. He promptly blamed the unpopular Governor LePage for his loss:

"I would simply say this vote represents a referendum on the governor and maybe the budget we are trying to get passed. That might have something to do with it. I don't feel its referendum on Dana Dow. It's bigger than that. When people are looking for change anything can happen."

That's quite the departure from the e-mail Dow sent out to Republican voters on Friday asking for their support:

"The Democrats have once again rallied the unions to represent Chris Johnson in the district through ground efforts," the GOP wrote. "The Johnson Campaign has focused on launching a major assault on our Governor through convincing voters that Governor LePage is a bully who is playing childish games. Dana needs each of you to help secure our best interest's by electing him to the Senate."

Johnson had previously lost the seat to Trahan in 2010, 56-32%-- but Mainers are so repulsed by GOP extremism in their state that the district, which has been Republican-held for a decade, is now in Democratic hands. (Dow had actually held the Senate seat for two terms before Trahan. Maine's Senate will now be composed of 19 Republicans, 15 Democrats and one independent.

Oh... and the dispute over the results of the Maine Republican caucus is just getting worse. Here's Rachel Maddow again last night: