Press release from the Collins for Senator campaign:

TOM ALLEN VOTES (AGAIN) TO JEOPARDIZE THE SAFETY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE

Congressman Tom Allen chose politics over the safety and security of the American people by voting Friday with a small minority against a bipartisan compromise that would modernize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. FISA is one of the most important tools in the war against terror, allowing our nation's intelligence community to conduct lawful surveillance of suspected terrorists. FISA has helped our intelligence agencies protect our country, and our military troops in the field, by granting these agencies the authority to intercept terrorist plots. The compromise bill provides our intelligence agencies with the tools they need to help protect against possible terrorist attacks, while protecting civil liberties.

"Tom Allen had a chance to help protect our nation's safety and security. Unfortunately, he caved in to the pressure of partisan special interest groups and voted to deny our intelligence community the necessary resources to continue monitoring foreign-based, terrorist communications," said Kevin Kelley, spokesman for Collins for Senator.

WHAT TOM ALLEN'S DEMOCRATIC COLLEAGUES ARE SAYING ABOUT FISA LEGISLATION:

• SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE NANCY PELOSI (D-CA) "Our troops in the field depend on timely and reliable information." "Good intelligence is necessary for us to know the plans of the terrorists." "This bill does not allow warrantless surveillance of Americans."
• HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER STENY HOYER (D-MD) "This bipartisan bill balances the needs of our intelligence community with Americans' civil liberties, and provides critical new oversight and accountability requirements," said Hoyer. "It is the result of compromise, and like any compromise is not perfect, but I believe it strikes a sound balance. Furthermore, we have ensured that Congress can revisit these issues because the legislation will sunset at the end of 2012."
• HOUSE ARMED SERVICES CHAIRMAN IKE SKELTON (D-MO) "This bipartisan compromise strikes the right balance between providing our intelligence community with the tools they need to find and fight terrorists and protecting our constitutional rights."
• SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN JAY ROCKEFELLER (D-WV) "At its core this historic, bipartisan agreement to modernize FISA is about providing an essential tool in the fight against terrorism. It meets our dual obligations to make our Nation safe and restore the privacy protections and civil liberties Americans require."

Scott Fish at AsMaineGoes.com released the results of an extensive reader demographic survey, to shed some insight into his audience:

Who’s Reading AsMaineGoes.com?

“I had been wanting to survey AsMaineGoes.com (AMG) visitors for years. For one reason or another I had to wait. In May 2008 there were no more obstacles,” said Scott K Fish, owner/editor of AsMaineGoes.com - arguably Maine’s most popular political website.

Maine's blog world continues to grow. Here are a couple great new blogs I've come across lately:

• ME-01- The race for Maine's 1st Congressional District
  This site gives some clear, concise statistical analysis of the CD1 race, something that is much needed in general up here. The post about Pingree's funding sources was especially good:A Closer Look at Chellie Pingree's Fundraising
• Lucky Cambridge's Maine Point
  This site is a riot. Cambridge has a real unique voice, and his analysis of the CD1 race so far has been poignant and funny. Here's an example, from a post about the CD1 candidate commercials:

  Chellie Pingree is sticking with what didn’t work in 2002 - the “I’m pissed off because somebody hit me in the forehead with a hatchet” gig. Girded with plenty of campaign cash, the Pingree camp contracts with high-level media production therefore using a camera slightly more sophisticated than a Brennan cell phone. Even though it’s evident that Cote’s 14-year-old niece had the day off from doing make-up, no amount of filler or base can hide that cleft sitting smack-dab in the middle of Chellie’s squash. One thing comes across - She’s still pissed off.

  Maine Point May 26- Commercials

TheAtlantic.com's Marc Ambinder published "The first in an occasional series of posts ranking the competitive Senate races."

Ranked by competitiveness, Maine's race was listed dead last:

Mainers don’t seem to be in the mood to kick out Sen. Susan Collins; it’s a stretch to label her a “Bush Republican,” as Democrat Rep. Tom Allen is finding out.

The Washington Post's Chris Cilizza has downgraded the Maine senate race to #10 in a list of Senate sets likely to change hands this fall. Once regarded one of the most competitive races in the nation, the Allen- Collins matchup is now pretty universally regarded as a might-have-been for Democrats:

10. Maine: There is a simple fact dominating this race: voters like Sen. Susan Collins (R) and overwhelmingly approve of the job she has done in the Senate. Unlike some Republican incumbents working hard of late to distance themselves from President Bush, Collins has a long record of moderation. Rep. Tom Allen (D) is a good candidate and has a very solid team around him. But, it's hard to see why voters would fire Collins. (Previous ranking: 9)

from the AP, via Seacoast Online:

Several small business owners formally launched a referendum challenge aimed at repealing new taxes on sodas, beer and wine adopted with a goal of bolstering funding for Maine's Dirigo Health program.

The Fed Up With Taxes coalition says the tax increases were approved without any public hearing in the final days of the legislative session.

An art project at the University of Maine in Farmington has resulted in an online uproar. An art student decided to cover the floor of the Student Center in American flags, and when outraged students and veterans showed up to pick the flags up, the University called the cops.

This kind of crap is happening all
over college campuses, but this time a student named Alex Willette was on the spot with a camera. His YouTube video and pictures of the confrontation have found their way all over the country, and the outrageous behavior of UMF faculty is now the subject of scorn from Maine to Montana. Willette's diligence with his camera work, and his subsequent posting of it on the Maine College Republican blog and AsMaineGoes is a great example of how potent the world of new media has become. It's going to be a rough day for the UMF switchboard I'm afraid...

The Maine GOP sent out this press release today, detailing the fact that Susan Collins continues to hold a strong lead in fundraising, cash-on-hand, and poll numbers.:

Some interesting numbers on the Maine Senate Race

Financial Reports released today show that:

1.Senator Collins beat Congressman Allen for the 5th consecutive quarter; and

2.The Collins campaign has $1.8 million more cash-on-hand than the Allen campaign.

The Polls:

The most recent poll on the Maine Senate race shows Senator Collins extending her lead to 23 points from the last published poll in November, which showed her ahead of Tom Allen 54-34. The poll also shows Collins with a lead among Union and non-Union households. From Roll Call:

Business Coalition Polls 3 Senate Battlegrounds

In releasing polling Tuesday that sought to bolster its argument that Americans oppose “card-check” legislation for unionized workers, the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace also released polls on three of the most hotly contested Senate races of the cycle.

In Colorado, the Republican polling firm McLaughlin & Associates found Rep. Mark Udall (D) leading former Rep. Bob Schaffer (R), 44 percent to 32 percent. The survey of 400 likely general election voters taken March 6-9 had a 4.9-point margin of error.

In Maine, Sen. Susan Collins (R) had a solid lead over Rep. Tom Allen (D), 54 percent to 31 percent. The poll of 400 likely voters March 6-9 had a 4.9-point error margin.

In Minnesota, Sen. Norm Coleman (R) had a 46 percent to 40 percent lead over comedian Al Franken (D) in the McLaughlin poll. The pollster interviewed 500 likely voters March 6-9. The poll had a 4.5-point error margin.

The poll found in all three states that non-union households were far more likely to support the Republican candidates, and also suggested that voters are less likely to support candidates who favor a card-check process for union membership, a provision favored by unions and many Democratic leaders.

— Josh Kurtz

(cross posted at RedState)

Latest from Tony Payne at the Alliance for Maine's Future:

Idling fines up to $500; Queen of taxes; New state employees top list of end-of-session mischief

No Idle Threat:

Only in Maine would you expect drivers of non-passenger vehicles (read:business) to risk fines of $150 to $500 for allowing vehicles to idle for more than 5 minutes. (LD 2056)