AUGUSTA, Maine — One of the four independent candidates in the race to replace U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe is endorsing former Gov. Angus King, though he plans to stay in the race and is challenging King to step aside if it appears he’s going to be a spoiler in the six-way contest.
Yarmouth Town Council Chairman Steve Woods met with King on Wednesday to propose that if one of the two men is trailing the other in polls by 10 points or more a week before the November election, then the trailing candidate should drop out and endorse the other.
“Basically, my offer to Angus King is, you’ve already brought up the concept of another fragmented electorate,” Woods said. “Since you brought it up yourself, I would like to propose a practical measure to see that that doesn’t happen.”
When he first announced his candidacy in early March, King told the Portland Press Herald that he didn’t want to be a spoiler in the race and that he would consider dropping out if it seemed unlikely he would win. King made the statement before U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat, had ruled out a Senate bid of her own.
Now the race is down to King, Woods, Democrat Cynthia Dill, Republican Charlie Summers and independents Danny Dalton and Andrew Ian Dodge.
In a letter to King, Woods cites Maine’s 2010 gubernatorial election in which Paul LePage claimed the governor’s office with less than a majority of the vote and the 2000 presidential election, after which some Democrats blamed Green Party candidate Ralph Nader for spoiling the election for Al Gore.
“I’m sure that neither of us would like to see the same thing happen again here in Maine, with so much at stake both here and across the country,” Woods wrote in a letter that said the two candidates “share virtually the same independent positions.”
King said Thursday he hadn’t had a chance to fully consider Woods’ proposal, but agreed that he didn’t want to be a spoiler in the election.
At this point in the race, though, King said he’s not a potential spoiler. “If I thought that, I wouldn’t be running,” he said.
Even if King doesn’t agree to it, Woods said he likely would abide by the terms of his proposal and back out and support King if he found himself behind in the polls in late October.
“There is a chance that the election of the next U.S. senator becomes more about being a math equation than an accurate reflection of the will of the people,” Woods said. “I want it to be about the will of the people.”
Along with serving on the Yarmouth Town Council, Woods is president and CEO of the Falmouth-based TideSmart Global marketing firm, part owner of the Maine Red Claws basketball team and host of a radio talk show.
While he says he shares a “core ideology” with King, Woods said there’s a lot that sets the two men apart. “Our approach to leadership, our approach to government, our approach to serving people is markedly different,” he said.
Woods’ proposal for King came the same day King challenged his opponents to disavow outside spending by so-called super-PACs during the Senate campaign.
King invited his opponents to enter into an agreement that discourages outside spending from super-PACs, a type of political action committee that can collect and spend unlimited sums on a candidate’s behalf as long as the expenditures aren’t coordinated with or given to a campaign.
Woods said he has told King that he’s willing to draw up such an agreement. Dill on Wednesday also said she’s willing to entertain the idea, and Summers didn’t say whether he would consider it.
This guy is down to Earth.
{ At this point in the race, though, King said he’s not a potential spoiler. “If I thought that, I wouldn’t be running,” he said. }
If King can’t see that,then he has inadequate judgement for the job!
Beware of the tea partiers, they can be worse than a skunk in the wood shed during an election.
The Tea Party doesnt hang out in the woodshed!
They are rummaging through you trash looking for Tax free meals!
The tea partiers seem to be good at stirring up a turd or two. I hope this November we will be able to level the field.
“”I’m sure that neither of us would like to see the same thing happen again here in Maine, with so much at stake both here and across the country,” Woods wrote in a letter that said the two candidates “share virtually the same independent positions.””
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Mainers…..it’s OK to scratch your heads over this one…You’re not alone in thinking that “their virtually same independent positions” (plural) is somewhat of an oxymoron.
Of course, either or both of them could choose honesty and openly clarify themselves for us with the courage of their “virtually same” convictions, whatever they are.
Track the media coverage on King in this US Senate race and you will see that it is, overall, extraordinarily positive (some blatantly so, e.g. read the reader comments under some King BDN stories). One media trick is to put up objections to a candidate only to shoot them down. We need a better way to collectively “follow the media coverage” just as we “follow the money”. Ideas, anyone?
Fox News is excellent at that trick.
Most of the media do it. If one understands who the media is seeking to promote, and not (no easy task) things that happen start to make a lot more sense.
Whoa, yeah!!!
We’re gonna need a website with unlimited capacity that any Mainer can access. Every time an article is published it can be linked under the candidate’s name with the news source, reporter and article date documented. Each article link can have interactive ability with any Mainer wishing to rate and input the article’s, media’s and/or the reporter’s bias. There should be a comment box. Maybe the articles could be sorted by issue, date, or source as well as the (default) candidate sort.
An American Colonial town crier would be confused how to tack it on the Town Hall door, but certainly jealous of the new technology!!!