Sorry but this is just not true. The Aroostook GOP Committee is a fringe group of loonies, dominated by a guy named Steve Martin, who is also head of the Maine chapter of the 9/11 truthers. As a matter of fact, I would bet the Aroostook GOP is specifically void of ANY of Olympia’s 2nd CD political people.

This resolution doesn’t reflect at all on Olympia’s support in the second district, it just reflects on the ineptitude of the Maine GOP that they can’t keep their party structure from being hijacked by crazies like Martin.

And in general, in Maine politics, the party doesn’t represent support for anyone, especially snowe and collins. Both senators are net donors to the party, rather than the other way around. The field structure of both senators is independent from the party, basically because the party has no field structure. So the net result is that the inept Maine GOP ends up void of any serious figures, and is instead populated in its thin ranks by crazies and zealots.

He may not have been a right-winger when he lost Collins, but he was when he ran against Smith. The only consistent thing throughout the years is that Monks has always been a sleazy scumbag who loses elections, regardless of his ideology.

Moreover, MCS did face an ideologically driven primary challenger before then, in 1954. McCarthy sponsored a primary challenger to her after she began criticizing his tactics. He (and his challenger) got his ass handed to him on a silver platter, and I suspect the same would happen if anyone challenged Olympia.

That is a fair point – the 72 election was hardly a political philosophy fight, so perhaps I chose that particular phrasing in error. However, that being said – Monks has steered himself very far left in recent years, but he wasn’t ALWAYS that way. In his earlier career he was much more right wing than he is now, that’s for sure. And lets not forget that MCS was pretty centrist herself, so being to her right wasn’t hard.

Anyway – you are correct, though. The issues were predominately how MCH had lost touch with her constituency, her health, and her age.

The larger point wasn’t about ideology though – it was that a strong primary challenge popped the bubble of invincibility around her and allowed the Democrat to take advantage.

The issue in the 1972 primary campaign was Margaret Chase Smith’s age. I believe that she was 74 then. Monks represented youth. I believe that he was 36 then. Monks was by no stretch of the imagination a right wing conservative. In fact, he has become very liberal in recent years and has even supported Democrats both politically and financially. I also seem to remember that Monks supported Ralph Nader in one of his several presidential runs.