MAINE POLITICS TODAY. With only rare lapses, the Republican
Party dominated Maine politics for a full century, from the birth
of the GOP in 1854 until the election of Edmund S. Muskie as governor
in 1954.
Muskie and a small band of young progressives broadened the base
of Democratic strength and began to convert Maine into a genuine
two-party state.
Muskie was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1958. He became an early
leader in the fight for a clean environment and also distinguished
himself as an expert in urban legislation and budget control.
In 1968 he was the Democratic nominee for vice president on a
ticket headed by Hubert Humphrey, and four years later was a major
contender for the presidential nomination.
Muskie was appointed secretary of state by President Jimmy Carter
in 1979. He was succeeded by George J. Mitchell of Waterville,
who went on to serve as Senate majority leader from 1988 until
his retirement from Congress in 1994.
Margaret Chase Smith of Skowhegan achieved fame as the first American
woman elected to both houses of Congress. She was first elected
to the Senate in 1949 after nearly a decade in the House of Representatives.
Noted for her political courage, integrity and independence. Smith
was the first Republican senator to speak out openly against the
excesses of McCarthyism in the 1950s. In 1964, her name was placed
in nomination for president at the Republican National Convention
in San Francisco.
Perhaps the most important political phenomenon of modern Maine
is the emergence of independent voters as a dominating force.
Independents outnumber both enrolled Democrats and Republicans
and provide the swing vote in most elections today.
In 1974, they helped elect the nation's only independent governor,
James B. Longley of Lewiston. Longley was succeeded first by a
Democrat and then a Republican, but in 1994 Maine elected another
independent governor, Angus S. King, Jr. of Brunswick.