Maine Senate: The race at a glance

The race to replace Olympia Snowe has become a complicated three-person affair. And frontrunner Angus King won't even say which party he'd caucus with

Independent former Maine Gov. Angus King is the heavy favorite to win retiring Sen. Olympia Snowe's seat.
(Image credit: Facebook.com/Angus King)

Maine has a long tradition of sending moderate Republicans to Washington. But when Sen. Olympia Snowe (R) announced her retirement, Democrats sensed a ripe pick-up opportunity. Then former Gov. Angus King, a popular independent with close ties to Snowe, jumped into the race, and top-tier Democrats turned skittish and opted out. Republicans chose Charlie Summers, the secretary of state, as their nominee, while Democrats picked state Sen. Cynthia Dill. Most observers believe King, the odds-on favorite, would caucus with Senate Democrats, but King has refused to be pinned down, putting Democrats in a "pickle," says Aaron Blake at The Washington Post. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) has declined to endorse the low-polling Dill, and it can't really endorse King, so it is putting money into ads attacking Summers. That makes King "for all intents and purposes, the Democratic nominee." But Summers is closing the once-yawning polling gap with King, and if that continues and the actual Democrat, Dill, starts rising in the polls, Maine could once again be sending a Republican to Washington.

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