Her decision shined a national spotlight on the corrosive partisanship in Congress and opened the door for former Gov. Angus King, a Brunswick independent, to win her seat in November.
Snowe’s decision to step down after 34 years in Congress — 16 years in the House and 18 years in the Senate — and King’s subsequent victory to succeed her were jointly named the No. 4 most important Mid-coast news story for 2012.
It was the state’s top story in 2012, according to The Associated Press.
Snowe’s announcement set off a cascading effect among Maine’s top elected leaders, dozens of whom scrambled to upgrade their resumes.
Democratic U.S. Reps. Mike Michaud and Chellie Pingree, and Republican state Sen. Kevin Raye all considered converting their House races into Senate campaigns. Democratic former Gov. John Baldacci considered a run. And scores of second-tier politicians began jockeying for the U.S. House seats Pingree and Michaud may have abandoned.
Ultimately, King’s candidacy sent everyone packing, creating a three-way race among King, Democratic nominee Cynthia Dill and Republican nominee Charles Summers — both of whom won their party’s statewide nominating contests June 12.
It was a bizarre general campaign, in which King denied an allegiance to Democrats amid persistent rumors he and Democrats in Washington had forged a deal in which he would caucus with that party in exchange for their support.
Billed as an outsider, King attended fundraisers hosted by well-known Democratic fundraisers in Washington.
National Democrats then refused to back their party’s nominee, so national Republican PACs filled the breach, spending thousands on TV ads favoring Dill in a bid to peel Democratic votes from King, who ended his campaign Nov. 6 with a whopping 54 percent of the vote.
King is a former governor and TV personality who has been a guest lecturer at Bowdoin College and resides in Brunswick.
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