The Republican Party, moving further and further to the ideological right, has purged yet another moderate Republican from the northeast.
U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), fed up by “anatmosphere of polarization and “my way or the highway ideologies,” says she’s not running for re-election.
The three-term senator’s campaign office issued a statement this afternoon, indicating that she is in good health and was confident she would’ve won re-election.
“Unfortunately, I do not realistically expect the partisanship of recent years in the Senate to change over the short term,” Snowe said in a statement. “So at this stage of my tenure in public service, I have concluded that I am not prepared to commit myself to an additional six years in the Senate, which is what a fourth term would entail.”
Snowe’s retirement represents a major setback for the GOP’s efforts to regain a majority in the Senate. As a moderate Republican, she may be the party’s only hope to hold a seat in the strongly blue state (Obama won the state by 17 points in 2008 and has gone Democratic in every presidential election since 1992).









