Sen. Olympia Snowe stepping down

last updated 8 January 2015

Olympia Snowe, a three-term Republican senator from Maine, said this week that she would not run for re-election in November, citing the bitter partisanship that has divided Congress. Snowe, a moderate Republican who voted across party lines on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the stimulus bill, had been expected to retain her seat in a strongly Democratic state. Her surprise announcement represents a major setback for the GOP’s efforts to capture control of the Senate in November. Snowe says she is retiring because she sees no end to the “atmosphere of polarization and ‘my way or the highway’ ideologies” that have become pervasive in Washington.