Remember Maine!

The Democrats are desperate to hold onto the Senate, something that looks next to impossible. Half a dozen Democrats (+ Lieberman) are retiring, 2 in solidly red states (Nebraska and North Dakota) and 3 in toss-up states (New Mexico, Virginia and Wisconsin). 16 Democrats are seeking reelection, two of whom-- Claire McCaskill (MO) and John Tester (MT) are in deep trouble. Only 2 Republicans are retiring, both in solidly red seats and without plausible Democratic opposition (Texas and Arizona). And only 8 Republicans are defending their seats, only one-- Scott Brown (MA)-- in a tough general election race. Everything has to break for the Democrats that conceivably could for them to hold onto the Senate. Does that ever happen?

The Democrats have decided to contest North Dakota's open seat and seem to be ignoring the possibility of denying Maine Senator Olympia Snowe reelection. How smart is that? In 2008, Obama lost North Dakota to John McCain 45-53%. He only took 13 of the state's 54 counties. And then, in 2010, the state's at-large incumbent congressman, conservative Democrat Earl Pomeroy, was trounced by the Majority Leader of the state House of Representatives, Rick Berg, 45-55%. Things don't appear all that blue in North Dakota. On the other hand, also in 2008, Obama beat McCain decisively in Maine, 58-40%, winning every county but one-- sparely populated Piscataquis (and even that was close). Both the state's congressmembers are Democrats, conservative Mike Michaud and liberal Chellie Pingree. Even in the midst of the Tea Party debacle that swept Maine in 2010, Pingree was reelected with 57% and Michaud won with 55%.

Democrats are counting on former North Dakota Attorney General (and failed gubernatorial candidate) Heidi Heitkamp to beat current Republican Congressman Rick Berg for that open Senate seat. It's almost as if their whole strategy for holding the Senate majority depends on it. They'll be appealing to the same voters who elected Berg last year. No one thinks they have a chance-- not even a small chance, even though Berg has turned out to be a dud.

And no one is paying much attention to Maine. Everyone's afraid of 3-term incumbent Olympia Snowe. Last time she ran, in 2006, she crushed the Democrat, Jean Hay Bright, 398,723 (74%) to 109,727 (21%). This time she has two inconsequential teabaggers running against her, Scott D'Amboise in the GOP primary and Andrew Ian Dodge, as an independent (an independent as of yesterday). Dodge says he unenrolled as a Republican because of the debacle of the botched-- possibly stolen-- caucuses.

On Wednesday, Dodge, 43, said he's been a registered Republican since he turned 18. He said he decided to leave the party after the Maine GOP's handling of the nonbinding caucuses, which was criticized for disenfranchising voters.

The party initially didn't count voting results from some towns and counties in the final tally, and declared Mitt Romney the winner. Critics claimed it was an effort by party leaders to bolster Romney, the so-called establishment presidential pick.

Last week, besieged GOP Chairman Charlie Webster responded to those complaints, saying some of the votes had been lost in his e-mail spam folder.

Dodge didn't buy that excuse, nor did he appreciate what he described as Webster's "patronizing attitude" toward those who were upset by how the caucuses were handled.

"Webster belittled members of his own party to save his own skin," Dodge said. "He said people who were complaining were wing nuts... I joined the tea party because we were bringing people into the Republican party. What the Maine GOP is doing is exactly the opposite."

Dodge added that Webster's excuse that caucus results went into a "spam folder" was "so bad it's beyond comment."

Webster and other GOP state party leaders did eventually agree to recount all caucus votes and to include late caucus votes in the final tally. Romney was still declared the winner.

Dodge also said he didn't believe he'd receive a fair shot in the GOP primary. "This whole thing is about Snowe getting re-elected now," he said.

He doesn't have much any money but his presence on the ballot as an independent-- in a state where independents routinely get as much as a third of the vote-- could be meaningful for a strong Democratic challenger to Snowe. If there was a strong Democratic challenger to Snowe. There are 4 in the primary (June 12) right now: former Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, state Rep. Jon Hinck of Portland, state Sen. Cynthia Dill of Cape Elizabeth and Portland home builder Benjamin Pollard. Snowe, one of Maine's wealthiest aristocrats, has all the name recognition and money she needs to defend her seat and has never lost an election.

Late last year, when Hinck threw his hat into the ring, we were relieved that at least there would be someone offering a progressive alternative to Snowe's conservative-- albeit mainstream conservative-- vision. He hopes to get Mainers to look at Snowe's actual voting record and forget the self-perpetuated hype about what a grand moderate she is. "She makes some really bad votes that cost us a lot," Hinck told the Portland Daily Sun when he announced. "So I may as well say, for example, in the last 10 years, I would have voted against the Iraq War; I would have voted against the Bush tax cuts; I would have voted against Medicare Part D (prescription drug benefit). I am quite certain, I know that was my position when each of those came up. When the war came up, I was a lawyer in private practice, but I joined a rally and march in the streets of Portland, with my daughter, who was only five years old, I think. I saw her start to chant, 'No blood for oil.'"

Opposing the Bush tax cuts, he said, was a "no brainer" based on costs to the Federal Treasury and effects on the economy. Regarding the Medicare Part D benefit, "I'm not that keen on unpaid-for expensive things, I know that comes back to bite us later; and secondly it was a giveaway to the pharmaceutical companies, part of my legal career has been doing legal battle with pharmaceutical companies over defective drugs and medical devices, and I'm not inclined to sweeten the deal with taxpayer money and pay them off."

Hinck's list of Snowe's wrong votes, he said, contributed to the current federal fiscal climate.

"If we did not do those three things, if the votes against them had prevailed, we would not be in the budget crisis that we are today," he said. "Our current senator was on the wrong side of those votes, and the consequences of us going the wrong way are stunning and enormous."

"If I was in Congress right now," continued Hinck, "there would be another vote for the Jobs Bill...This is where she breaks from a vast majority of Mainers. The proposal was a very small tax increase on the income someone makes above $1 million in a year. In this instance, the 5,000 jobs by far and away are a greater benefit than any possible harm from a small tax increase when someone has already made $1 million in a year. It is part of a bigger picture where unfortunately they're playing into an agenda which will not do the right thing for this country because they want to turn the president out of office. That, too, is grounds not to rehire the incumbent."

Snowe has received more than three times as much campaign money from outside of Maine than from within the state during her current term and close to half of that money came from PACs, mostly offering up corporate money (bribes). Over 80% of Hinck's contributions come from small donors in Maine and none of it came from PACs, corporations or sleazy special-interest groups. Hinck's record looks great; I haven't met him or heard him speak. Watching his YouTube videos don't seem as compelling as his record. But... he was an Eagle Scout.

The Democratic Party needs more candidates like this, who can talk like this and who think like this-- and less who are corprorate, careerist shills, like most of our sadsack political elite: