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While it is still relatively far out from the election, and three way races tend to be unpredictable, it appears that former governor and Independent Angus King is the prohibitive favorite to win the open Maine Senate Seat. A new WBUR poll finds King with a commanding 27 point lead.
The big unanswered question doesn’t seem to be if King will win; it’s which party will he caucus with come January? It seems most expect him to caucus with the Democrats. All top Democrats seeking the seat dropped out when King entered the race, but King has remained adamant that he is a free agent open to potentially caucusing with either party.
It is very possible given the current state of the election that after November control of the Senate could come down to King. If that is the case he would have a lot of leverage and there could be some extremely interesting horse trading taking place.
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What are King’s politics. Who are his financial supporters. What is his record.
Why does it matter which of the identical twins controls the senate.
Per Governor King, he’s been on the phone with Erskine Bowles. Cat food here we come!
eCAHNomics–
From what I’ve read, Angus King is a corporatist. He fervently backs Bowles-Simpson, and draconian measures of deficit reduction.
Blue
Note: Howard Dean, Face the Nation, (6//17/12), “We do have to do entitlement reform.” (In agreement with Lindsey Graham on implementing Bowles-Simpson).
If the Senate is close enough that he has leverage, he should go with the party that agrees to appoint him to EVERY conference committee. The House and Senate have to reconcile their differing version of every bill (both authorizing committee bills and appropriation bills). The compromise they negotiate must be approved by a majority vote of both sets of conferees, after which a single conference report is sent to both Houses for a vote.
A vote in every conference committee, now THAT’s leverage. :o)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_congressional_conference_committee
King is pretty much a male Susan Collins/Olympia Snowe, originally a conservative Democrat, ran as an independent for governor. He is a very close friend of Republican William Cohen, who Susan Collins worked for before running for Senate, Olympia Snowe also worked for Cohen.
Not saying you’re wrong and I claim no expertise whatsoever on King. But if you know anyone from Maine, you know you should never draw any conclusions based on who they spent time with on the phone. Especially if they’re not even Down East.
That must be why the Democrats are backing him over the Democratic primary winner. It explains so much.
Just like the rest of the actors in the Kabuki Theatre that is our Congress, he’ll defer to whatever entity pays him more. Why do we even bother to pretend that it makes a difference which label they wear? The only affiliation that matters, and which they all have in common is “C” for Corporatist.
It’s not really who he talks to but that he chose to showcase that conversation in what appears to be austerity in support of the MIC.
I’m from The County by the way.
Says it all right there about the Democratic Party today, doesn’t it?
IIRC you live in Virginia like me. If you want to know a Democrat running for Senate who is likely to really, really support Bowles-Simpson, then the D running here is that guy. Tim Kaine is worse than the Democrat he’s replacing IMO. And then, of course, there’s George Allen, the biggest ZERO in the history of zeroes some say, as the ONLY reason he’s where he is today is because of his father who had the same name.