Maine's Best Campaigns of the 21st Century
Submitted by editor on November 11, 2007 - 8:39pm.One of our regular features at PolitickerME.com will be a series of lists that we hope you will enjoy. With the launch of our new Maine-based political news site, we are pleased to offer our list of Maine's Five Best and Worst Camp aigns of the 21st Century.
For the most part, we looked at races that were highly competitive. Some campaigns perform extremely well, but of course, they are expected to win. And there are the so-called sacrificial lambs, running for various offices across the state that are not expected to raise money, go in the mailbox, or even send out press releases; we tried not to bother them.
Remember, this list – like all lists – are highly subjective. And as always, we encourage the feedback of our readers.
1  Dennis Bailey, Lisa Gorman, Stevens Reid Curcio &Potholm created an unstoppable team with money, know-how and talent. Despite being out spent 10-1, team Bailey delivered a knock-out punch to the Southern Maine casino proposal. |
2  Republicans nationally got the crap kicked out of them, but Olympia Snowe managed one of the largest wins in Congress. Her 74% topped the previous 69% back in 2000, and the 60% in 1994. The campaign was a well oiled machine, run behind the scenes by a team of experienced campaigners; including her husband, former Governor John McKernan. |
3  In 2006, the House Democrats executed a well-planned campaign that added more than a dozen seats to their ranks and defeated a number of Republican incumbents. Democrats increased their number form 74 to 89, while Republicans saw their numbers drop from 73 to 60. Money was well-spent and targeted, with the troops out in force. |
4  Senator Richard Bennett brought the Maine Senate to a 17-17 tie, with one Independent in the 2000 election cycle. Most impressive is that they had only 7 incumbents going in to the 2000 election, half the number the Democrats had, yet managed to bring the chamber to a tie. As a result, Senator Bennett and Senator Mike Michaud (now Congressman Michaud) agreed to a power sharing arrangement for the session. |
5  Senator Collins proved her campaign worthiness in her first re-election bid against a well financed and former State Senate Majority Leader, Chellie Pingree. The Pingree campaign had the potential to capitalize on Maine's left leaning electorate but couldn't get by the Collins team that matched her dollar for dollar, campaign ad for campaign ad-and then some. The Senator hired the right people, spent her money wisely and never wavered from her plan. |
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CasinosNO
Thanks, but the CasinosNO campaign was in 2003.
Olympia Snowe for U.S. Senate (2006)
If she were actually a Republican she would have gotten beat like the other Republicans did.
But I do have to give her props for bringing the MeGOP to the center.
I give the campaign kudos to the Democratic Party. They have one of their people running and winning with the Republicans money.
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