– By DAVID SHARP

The Associated Press

While it’s common knowledge that the tea party was frustrated with Sen. Olympia Snowe, activists were divided over whether the woman sometimes described as the most liberal Republican in the Senate should leave Congress.

With no formal leadership, tea party activists were fractured over whether to work with the senator or work to oust her. Some were hoping for a more conservative candidate, though Snowe appeared to be a shoo-in for re-election.

Her announcement last week that she will not seek a fourth term because of excessive partisanship put a seat expected to remain Republican up for grabs.

“You have to be careful of what you wish for,” said Peter Harring, a carpenter from Auburn who’s a leading voice in the tea party movement. “The replacement could be worse.”

Conservative Republican Scott D’Amboise was the choice of tea party activists who felt Snowe was out of step. Instead of coasting unopposed with Snowe’s departure, D’Amboise now faces as many as four GOP competitors.

Tea party activists across the country have added to the hyperpartisan atmosphere in Washington, but Snowe didn’t blame them for her decision to leave the Senate.

“Maine tea party groups and Maine tea party activists played no role in her decision,” said Justin Brasell, her campaign manager. “Her remarks on partisanship were mostly directed at the current dysfunction and polarization of the Senate itself.”

Over the past year, Snowe held numerous town meetings and face-to-face sessions with tea party activists, including Harring, Beth Wallinga, a Republican from Old Town, and Cynthia Rosen, one of the tea party-inspired Republicans who took over the party platform at the GOP convention last summer.

Snowe’s campaign said most tea party activists were willing to listen. “In fact, some of our hardest working volunteers were in some of those initial meetings, and once they decided to support the senator, could not have been more helpful to the campaign,” Brasell said.

But many continued to see her as too liberal.

“I would have liked to have seen a constitutional conservative get in there and take the spot away from her,” said Harring. “Now, I think the choices are so far and wide that it’s going to be tough to call.”

Wallinga said she felt that Snowe was listening but was still too liberal to call herself a Republican. She pointed out that Snowe was the only Republican to vote last week to affirm an Obama administration directive requiring employers to provide contraception coverage to their workers regardless of religious or ethical concerns.

“We won’t miss her in Washington, being down there supposedly representing us,” Wallinga said.

The activists’ goal is to support candidates who want smaller government, lower taxes and a strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, Rosen said.

Even in the tea party, Snowe has defenders.

Carter Jones of Aurora began working with Snowe during the health care debate, during which she was criticized by conservatives for voting for President Obama’s health care bill in the Senate Finance Committee. Ultimately, Snowe voted against it on the Senate floor.

Jones said tea party conservatives had a respectful relationship with Snowe, but he fears that won’t be the case with her successor, particularly if it’s a Democrat.