Former Secretary of State Matt Dunlap has taken out papers with the Federal Elections Commission to take on U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, in 2012.
Dunlap’s plan to challenge Snowe has been a rumor for months. The Oct. 31 FEC filing makes it official.
Dunlap, of Old Town, will likely face state Rep. Jon Hinck, D-Portland, in a Democratic primary next June. Hinck recently announced that he had created an exploratory committee.
Dunlap declined to comment on entering the race.
Hinck, in a written statement, welcomed Dunlap to the race, adding that it was time for Snowe to go.
“Olympia Snowe has lost touch with Mainers,” Hinck said. “A quick look at her campaign shows that she is financed by wealthy out-of-staters and special-interest groups like Bank of America, Exxon Mobil, Goldman Sachs, and even Haliburton.”
He added, “Olympia Snowe talks one way in Washington and a different way in Maine.”
Justin Brasell, Snowe’s campaign manager, released a statement saying that the senator had been “an effective and independent voice for Maine.”
Brasell continued, “As always, (Snowe) looks forward to the opportunity in the campaign next year to showcase her many accomplishments on behalf of Maine workers, having led efforts to help protect and grow jobs in our forestry, fishing, farming and shipbuilding industries, among her many other efforts that have served Mainers well.”
Snowe so far faces two Republican tea party challengers, Scott D’Amboise and Andrew Ian Dodge.
A recent Public Policy Polling survey showed that 47 percent of likely Republican primary voters would prefer a more conservative candidate than Snowe. However, only 21 percent of the respondents identified themselves as members of the tea party.
“(That 21 percent) want to replace Snowe with someone more conservative by an 80-16 margin … but they’re pretty much drowned out by the rest of the GOP electorate supporting Snowe 58-36,” wrote Tom Jensen of PPP. “The tea party base just doesn’t appear to be as large as it used to be.”
Persistent rumors have circled that a third Republican challenger will emerge, but that candidate has yet to surface. Carol Weston, a former Republican state representative and now the head of the Maine chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a tea party organization funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, has been cited as a potential candidate.
Weston recently told the Sun Journal that she was not interested in running for the U.S. Senate.
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