Pro-Pot, Pro-Gay, Anti-NSA ... and running for senate

[mainer]

Please, Dems, across the country! Help us defeat Susan Collins in Maine, and bring to the Senate one of the most impressive candidates I have ever met in my lifetime. (And yes, I include Obama and Clinton in that list.)

After a time as a field director at the American Civil Liberties Union office in Washington, D.C., Bellows returned to Maine. Leading the state office, she helped defeat a national ID-card requirement in the Maine legislature, setting off a wave of such defeats around the country; twice spearheaded a campaign to legalize same-sex marriage (losing once before winning in 2012); and successfully organized a bill that would require a warrant for law enforcement to access private cellphone communication.

And now her uphill battle against incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins is generating the kind of buzz that Democrats need in what is supposed to be a difficult midterm-election year, and political analysts are wondering if her pitch points a way forward toward a politics of the future.

“I was honored to be called the Elizabeth Warren of civil liberties,” said Bellows in an interview in New York, where she had come for a fundraiser and a series of interviews. “I think it is really important that we stand up for civil liberties. Civil liberties is core to who we are as Americans. It is what unites us across background, across ideology. These core values in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are something that we all share and we need to get back to these fundamental freedoms.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/04/pro-pot-pro-gay-anti-nsa-and-running-for-senate.html

[yeoman6987]

1. Is it possible to beat Susan Collins?

They seem to keep her around every election. I don't know much about politics up there but it is in the North East and should be Democratic. Although they have a Republican Governor which is weird too.

[mainer]

2. Some said it was impossible for Elizabeth Warren to win.

Yes, it's an odd state here, politically speaking. We have an ultra-liberal southern half, and a conservative northern half. But by and large, it's pretty libertarian, and that may win some of the usual conservatives over to Shenna's side.

I do think Collins is beatable -- certainly Shenna's fundraising stats are looking very competitive so far.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

3. DU Rec

[mainer]

4. Oops -- sorry. I just saw that this was previously posted.

The other thread is here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024779016

[mainer]

5. Here's the website to donate to Bellows for Senate

Collins has a huge war chest. Shenna needs support!

http://bellowsforsenate.com/

[Comrade Grumpy]

6. Looks like a chance to send a good progressive "D" to Washington and pick up a Senate seat.