Do Democrats Who Supported Susan Collins in 2020 Regret Their Vote? Nope.

[Celerity]

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2022/01/17/do-democrats-who-supported-susan-collins-in-2020-regret-their-vote/



Mary Ann Lynch, of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, is a model Democrat. She began her political career as a staffer for Democratic Governor Joe Brennan and has supported the party with donations and volunteer work for more than 40 years. In the past two elections, she voted a straight Democratic slate—Joe Biden, U.S. Representative Chellie Pingree, Governor Janet Mills—with one exception. Last fall, with control of the Senate on the line and the Brett Kavanaugh hearings a traumatic recent memory, Lynch cast a ballot for Republican Senator Susan Collins. She has no regrets. “I’m a ticket splitter,” Lynch told me. “I don’t often split, but I do split. I vote for the person who I feel would be the best for Maine and for the country. Instead of saying we need more Democrats or more Republicans, I would say we would need more people like Susan Collins who reach across the aisle to get things done.”

Lynch does not share the ominous feeling, increasingly common among Democrats, that time is running out. A paper-thin majority in Congress is likely to disappear next year, leaving just months to pass paid family leave and protect voters from conservative attempts at disenfranchisement. As the likes of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema pettifog and delay, many Democrats wish for just one more Senate seat. And as Texas and other states pass restrictive abortion laws unchecked by the Supreme Court, frustrated Democrats turn to voters in Maine, who returned Collins to the Senate last fall despite her vote for Kavanaugh and the Republican tax bill, and ask: Why?

Exit polling indicates that 13 percent of Collins’s support in 2020 came from registered Democrats. Women overall broke for Collins over her challenger, Sara Gideon, 49 to 46 percent. How did these constituencies make a decision seemingly so against their own interests? How do they feel about it now? Ask them, and their answers often evoke nostalgia for things lost—paper mills, union jobs, and a bipartisan, collegial Congress. They also share a lack of urgency about the slow-moving constitutional crisis instigated by Donald Trump, a sign, along with the election of Glenn Youngkin in Virginia this fall, that Democrats will have to do more to win than point to Trump’s misdeeds, especially now that he’s off the ballot.

snip

Collins’s votes in the Senate since her reelection have been just fine with Green, too. This summer, she helped defeat the For the People Act, arguing that its sweeping voting rights provisions—making Election Day a federal holiday, restoring eligibility to felons who’ve served their sentences, keeping names on voting rolls, automatically registering eligible voters—went far beyond preserving the right to vote. Green wasn’t convinced either that such sweeping action was necessary in response to laws such as Georgia’s, which forbids giving water to people waiting to vote. (With many polling places closed in Black areas, lines are often long.) Should people be allowed, Green mused, to give voters even such small gifts as a bottle of water? “What is that law saying? I don’t know,” he said. “Leave it to Susan. I trust her.”

snip

[dsc]

1. it must be nice to have all that white privilege

of course, Mr. Green doesn't have to wait in long lines to vote, Mr. Greeneis seeing himself packed into districts where Democrats get 90 plus percent of the vote while the rest of the districts are won by the GOP by 10 points. Must be nice.

[FBaggins]

5. ??? Senators run statewide

There are no districts involved... and Democrats draw the lines in Maine anyway

[dsc]

6. well he is explaining why he doesn't support the VRA

which bans gerrymandering among other things.

[2naSalit]

2. Pathetic.

[Emile]

3. They sound more like independents than democrats.

[Maine Abu El Banat]

4. One Question

Why is everyone so sure we will lose the house and Senate next year? Repervs will primary in some of the worst knuckle dragging Q cowards in their state. Moderates will vote Dem.

[Celerity]

8. Here are the main drivers I've seen posited (don't shoot the messenger, I'm NOT saying it's doomed)

1 Inflation. IF it is still in the 6%, 7 % range come October, we are in deep shit.

2 Extremely poor history for remotely recent first midterms for Dem POTUS's (see 1994 and 2010 for perfect examples) The insurrection CAN, in theory, help switch this, IF the voters pay attention and we do a great job presenting the case as to why the vermin Rethugs are traitors. Also wee need to play up our accomplishments, do better messaging.

3 IF No voter bills are passed (and that looks likely) then the Rethugs will do massive election fraud such as voter suppression and partisan gerrymandering

4 The reapportionment after the 2020 Census hurts us (on net, we will gain in a few states hopefully) in the House, enough to possibly flip it by itself if many of the crazy shite Rethug gerrymanders are upheld.

5 IF No BBB Act is passed (and it is on life support) then Sinema and Manchin will have gutted over 90% of Biden's new spend agenda between the 2 giant infrastructure bills. Only $550 billion out of his original total new spend frameworks of $6.1 trillion will be passed, much of that $550 billion is backloaded past the 2022 midterms) Almost all of his social welfare/human infrastructure items will be binned.

6 The Senate map is not nearly as good as many insist on, especially if not voter bills are passed. We have only 3 truly decent shots at Red to Blue flips, PA (open seat, our best bet), NC (open seat, and atm it is looking a bit worse) and WI (it is flip a coin if that asshat Johnson deciding to run is a good or a bad thing for us). FL and OH are very much heavy lifts, big reaches, and the rest are very likely going to stay Red. IA (soon to be Alabama with corn) is not flipping Blue, for instance. At the same time, we have 4 seats in real risk of flipping to Red. GA, AZ, NH, and NV, The only true break we have has so far is Sununu (who would have very likely defeated Hassan) refusing to run in NH. Watch CO, as even though I rate it pretty solid Blue, but if it ends up close, that is doom for our national chances, and loss there would mean a Red Tsunami is in effect.

7 Biden's popularity is a big input. Atm, he is doing poorly with several extremely key cohorts, the 44yo and under vote, independents, and Latinos. He has somewhat cratered with all 3.



8 Covid, IF it still raging.

[rampartc]

7. susie collins reaches across the aisle to

bitch slap any democrat gullible enough to believe her "concern" means anything.

[Mad_Machine76]

9. Yep

Is the minute number of times she "reaches across the aisle" (and the more radicalized the GOP has become the less and less she has done it) really worth that much to some Democratic voters- worth more than nearly giving Republicans control of the Senate?

[LiberalFighter]

10. How exactly does Collins reach across the aisle?

[Celerity]

11. to pass Manchin some Maine lobster at a posh resto

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin endorses Republican Sen. Susan Collins’s reelection

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democratic-sen-joe-manchin-endorses-republican-sen-susan-collinss-reelection/2019/04/11/57d57bde-5c9a-11e9-842d-7d3ed7eb3957_story.html