Larry Sabato moves Maine Senate race to 'leans Democratic'
Sabato’s Crystal Ball, the election handicapper at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, has shifted Maine’s hotly contested Senate race toward Democrat Sara Gideon.
The rating change from "toss-up" to "lean Democratic" is the latest sign of trouble for Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who is among the most vulnerable GOP senators facing reelection this year. Recent polls show Gideon, the Maine state House speaker, leading in her bid to unseat Collins, including a New York Times/Siena College survey released last week that found the Maine senator trailing by 5 points.
The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday also injected a new air of uncertainty into the Senate race. Ginsburg’s passing prompted Collins to break from GOP leaders and call for the Senate to wait until after the November elections to confirm a replacement to the court.
There may be another challenge for Collins: Maine’s ranked-choice voting system, which allows voters to rank candidates by preference on their ballot.
In its analysis of the race, Sabato’s Crystal Ball noted that two independent candidates, Lisa Savage and Max Linn, appeared to be receiving enough support to prevent either Collins or Gideon from notching 50 percent of the vote outright.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/517367-election-handicapper-moves-maine-senate-race-to-leans-democratic
= new reply since forum marked as read
