Family Research Council PAC: We Would Support A Primary Against Olympia Snowe

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME)
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I just spoke to Connie Mackey, president of the Family Research Council Action PAC, and she told me that if a conservative candidate were to emerge to run against Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) in the 2012 Republican primary, FRC Action will back them.

“Well of course there is an audience that would love to see Olympia Snowe out of office, within the ranks of social conservatives, that’s for certain,” said Mackey.

A new survey from Public Policy Polling (D) found that a generic conservative challenger would lead the moderate Snowe in a Republican primary by a whopping 59%-31% margin.

“I think a couple years ago, we wouldn’t have thought it was possible,” said Mackey. “However, those numbers are interesting, and I think those numbers might just track the fact that a lot of Americans are waking up to the liberal policies, what they mean and how they’re playing out. And it may be affecting her, with her votes for the stimulus, and breaking from her party. And we would like to see a conservative have a chance to remove her from office up there.”

As luck would have it, Mackey is headed up to New Hampshire this weekend for a regional Family Research Council conference on family policy. And she expects that this subject will probably come up in her discussions with FRC members from Maine. Mackey reiterated that nobody would have expected to see numbers like this until now, “so now the process of discussion will begin.”

I asked Mackey whether this could turn into another case like the recent NY-23 special election, in which FRC Action supported Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman against Republican Dede Scozzafava, only to end in a victory by Democratic candidate Bill Owens. Mackey said it had surprised a lot of people when the GOP nominated a candidate as liberal as Scozzafava, and that a key difference here is that Maine would have a primary.

“Well, I think that New York 23 actually had a shot. It wasn’t automatic that the Democrat would win that one,” Mackey explained. “I think a primary is a whole different situation completely. Would we support a conservative against Olympia Snowe in a primary? Yes.”

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