Maine Senate Race - Ranked Choice Voting
Maine Senate Race - Ranked Choice Voting
For those without a binary brain, Maine has a voting system for you - ranked choice - which could determine who their next Senator is. Susan Collins (67), seeking her fifth term in the Senate. Collins won her last race with 70% of the vote but is now in a dogfight with Sara Gideon (48), Maine's Speaker. Polls show Gideon slightly ahead but neither will probably get a majority, unless it is Gideon.
An independent, Lisa Savage, admits she would not be in the race without Maine's ranked choice voting system. Savage, a teacher, advocates progressive policies - a single payer health system, the Green New Deal, student debt relief. She is also advocating that people voter for her first and Gideon second on their ranked choice.
On a national level that would be like having Biden, Bernie and Trump as options and voters ranking their top two. That's one way of loosening the grip of a two party system and including more candidates for a voter to choose.
Trump is deeply unpopular in Maine resulting in Biden having a 15 point lead. Only 37% of those Maine voters polled approved of Trump's performance. Collins has sided with Trump on the major issues when push comes to shove. Dems have been putting up signs "Trump Collins 2020" in yards to reinforce that. In a poll during Trump's impeachment, fifty-three percent of Maine voters said Trump is guilty of abusing the power of his office for his personal benefit by withholding military aid to Ukraine in an effort to push the nation to announce an investigation into a potential opponent in this year’s election. Collins voted to acquit Trump, saying that Trump's behavior would change "I believe that the president has learned from this case. The president has been impeached. That's a pretty big lesson."
Collins says she supports abortion rights but voted for Kavanaugh, which was unpopular with some who previously backed her. In a poll at the time, Maine women opposed Kavanaugh by a 20 point margin. They have been among major supporters of Collins in the past. Collins told reporters that “We talked about whether he considered Roe to be settled law. He said that he agreed with what [Chief] Justice [John] Roberts said at his nomination hearing in which he said that it was settled law.” Kavanaugh voted in the minority that a Louisiana law restricting abortion providers should not be struck down.
With Coney Barrett's nomination hearings getting underway, Collins' presence on the Judiciary Committee will again remind Mainers of the Kavanaugh vote and be hard not to see a Collins vote for Barrett as anything other than a vote to eliminate Roe v Wade. Especially if Collins again says that Barrett told her Roe v Wade is "settled law". Collins preferred not to hold confirmation hearings until after Nov 3 as do 65% of Mainers in a recent poll. She'll be forced to choose before the election on a matter of importance to Mainers.
Collins also has the baggage of being a Republican Senator whose party has not been able to deliver any coronavirus relief while pursuing the elimination of Obamacare. In an age of polarization, Collins says she is not in favor of the lawsuit to eliminate the ACA.