Former Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap announced via press release on Thursday that he is the first Democrat to file the necessary petition signatures to become a candidate for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat.
Dunlap and state Sen. Cynthia Dill were already in the race and hoping to run against Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe, who was widely viewed as strong for re-election, before the surprise retirement announcement two weeks that Snowe is retiring.
“I’m running now for the same reasons as before,” said Dunlap. “I don’t control what anyone else does—all I can do is work as hard as I can and continue fighting for middle class and working Maine people. I’ll continue that on the campaign trail, and when I’m elected to the United States Senate.”
The next question, however, is the extent to which liberal groups will support either Dunlap or Dill, compared to the candidacy of independent former Gov. Angus King. A top-tier Democrat in the state, Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree, announced last week that she was not running, with one expressly-stated reason being that she worried that she and King might split the non-Republican vote.
