Maine

by NoahSusan Collins' whole life is an upside down pyramid of ever-growing shamelessness and duplicity. It's easy to see what she must have been like as a child, since she must have chosen her path early to get to the monumental point where she is today.

Would you guess this came from Gideon or Collins? Or one of their corporately-funded super-PACs?Over the last week I've had a running argument with some centrist Democrats about the bullshit pledge-- bullshit in some cases, heartfelt in others-- Democratic candidates routinely take to eschew corporate PAC money. Why bullshit? Three reasons:

Republicans in states or districts that are so red that they don't need independent voters to win, have no problem continuing to support Trump. At least in theory, the states where Republicans can win without significant independent support are these half dozen red hellholes (with their PVIs):

by NoahUnless you are ridiculously naive, you have to know by now that Maine's $enator Susan Collins would have welcomed Alabama Judge Roy Moore into the United States $enate. Had the man she considers her boss of bosses, Donald Trump, nominated Judge Moore for the "Supreme" Court, she would have voted for him just as she voted for Brett Kavanaugh.

Imagine electing Bernie or Elizabeth in November-- and a stronger Democratic major in the House with more outstanding progressives like Mike Siegel, Dana Balter, J.D. Scholten, Marie Newman, Morgan Harper, Kara Eastman and Kim Williams. And then waking up on Wednesday and realizing congressional terrorist Mitch McConnell is still running the U.S.

The Jack Abramoff scandal had broken wide open and one of Abramoff's biggest lackeys was Montana Senator Conrad Burns. Democrats saw a glimmer of hope of taking back the Montana seat that Burns had won from John Melcher in 1988. In 2000 Burns was barely reelected-- 50.6% to 47.2% against Brian Schweitzer. Montana had been trending red-- in 2000 Bush won the state 58-33% and in 2004 was reelected 59-39%.

Before we get into the seat a Democrat can capture, we have to realize that there's a super-vulnerable red seat, held by a Democrat who is up for reelection. The state's PVI is R+14 and Trump won that state 62-34%. Their House has 77 Republicans and 28 Democrats and their state Senate has 27 Republicans and just 8 Democrats.

State Senator Shenna Bellows-- fingers crossedThe 2020 Senate map is better than the 2018 map was-- but not much better. The Democrats really only have one tough seat to defend that they are likely to lose, Alabama (Jones)-- but that's the only good news. The bad news is that most of the Republican seats up for grabs are pretty safe too.

Jared Golden made history this cycle-- not just because he's a progressive Democrat who won Maine's second district and not just because prior to Poliquin's defeat no incumbent had lost an election for Maine's 2nd District seat since 1916, but because he is the first member of Congress who won election through ranked-choice voting.

Winning smileAlthough Maine’s largely rural second congressional district voted for Obama both times he ran, in 2016 it was anything but Hillary country. First Bernie wiped her out in the state caucuses 64.3% to 35.3%. And in the 2nd it was even worse for her. Bernie took every county, Oxford with over 70%.