Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, who in February announced her retirement, has a campaign chest valued at $3.5 million, and it sounds like her decision on who gets it, will be a matter of choice, and not party politics.
According to the Kennebec Journal, Snowe told campaign donors she plans to put her campaign’s remaining cash on hand ($2.41 million according to FEC filings) toward supporting candidates whose views more closely resemble her own, and to entities that will offer the “sensible center” a “national voice.”
The letter reads, in part: “We’ve made no final decisions, but I’m giving serious thought to creating both a center to encourage consensus building as well as an entity to help raise the aspirations of young Maine women.”
The Senator has been a strong advocate for women’s rights and in March broke with fellow Republican lawmakers to support President Obama’s contraception coverage mandate.
When Snowe announced her retirement in May, she lamented the partisanship that she says has increasingly defined Congress: “I do find it frustrating, however, that an atmosphere of polarization and ‘my way or the highway’ ideologies has become pervasive in campaigns and in our governing institutions.”
Jacqueline Calayag