A poll has Allen within 8 points of Collins.

[RBInMaine]

A DSCC has Allen within 8 points (41-49), but it's still a long shot since Allen HAS NOT connected well with the 2nd district and he allowed himself to be swiftboated by the card check haters. Too bad. It would have been hard no matter what, but with a better campaign in the 2nd district he could have closed the gap enough to beat her by a few points. Hard to see how he can pull it off at this stage. Very disappointing, but here's hoping.

[Old and In the Way]

1. I'm hoping too.

I don't know why he told the Vote Vets to back off their ads against Collins...that was really dumb. Still, I hope he can chip away and get within 3-5 points before the election. If the polls show we're 1 Senator shy of a filibuster proof Senate majority, I'm hoping the DSCC/DNC will blitz the airwaves letting the voters here know that they can guarantee real change in a getting the roadblocks cleared for a quick and decisive Democratic agenda. I honestly can't believe Obama can win without bringing along Tom.

[RBInMaine]

2. Get's tougher and tougher as the days go by. HE FAILED TO CONNECT !!

SORRY, I LIKE TOM AND ALREADY VOTED FOR HIM BY ABSENTEE, BUT HE HAS RUN A SHITTY CAMPAIGN. He hasn't defined the election and its stakes well, he hasn't energized people, his ads are boring and aloof, and he hasn't connected well at all with rural 2nd district voters. AND, he stood there and allowed himself to be card-check-boated. ALL HORRID MISTAKES. Sorry, but I think the opportunity has passed. Just hope I may be wrong. His only hope now is to link her to Bush and his economic policies bigtime, andmake the argument you do, that we MUST have a Dem in that seat. And still, a VERY long shot at that. He blew it !

[luckyleftyme2]

3. she is vunderable

link her to McCain,Lieberman and Bush. She has voted for most of the big spending bills; but she also was chair of the committee over seeing the military contracts that were so full of pork for Halliburton.
It's time to bring her home and out of Washington!
Vote for ALLEN!

[luckyleftyme2]

4. NOT SURE IF THIS HAS EVER BEEN POSTED HERE

ME-SEN: Collins Office, Maine Paper Silent On Conflict-of-Interest Allegations
By Eric Kleefeld - August 29, 2007, 12:47PM
The liberal blogs have been abuzz with accusations against a major Maine newspaper, the Bangor Daily News, charging it with a conflict of interest in its coverage and editorial opinions on the Maine Senate race, which is shaping up as one of the highest-profile races in the nation, with intense interest from the Netroots.

The allegations seem to have a great deal of merit, as it turns out. They turn on the fact that the paper's executive editor, Mark Woodward, is married to Bridget Woodward, a staffer for Collins in the Senator's Bangor district office. In other words, if Collins were to lose the election, the wife of the executive editor of a major newspaper in Collins' home state would be out of a job — which would cause some serious inconvenience for that household.

So what does the paper's executive editor and the Collins staffer have to say about this arrangement? Absolutely nothing. We've repeatedly tried to contact Mark Woodward at the Daily News office, and Bridget Woodward at the Bangor district office, hoping to hear their side of the story. Thus far, not one of our calls has been returned.

The conflict-of-interest accusations came to light after the Daily News published an editorial backing up Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), who has denounced Democratic Congressman Tom Allen's campaign for sending a tracker with a video camera to follow her around campaigning, specifically at a recent parade. From the paper's editorial:

Tracking is the campaign practice of filming an opponent to the greatest extent possible, making amply certain the opponent is aware of the filming. Nominally, tracking is used to gather information, but in reality, a camera stuck in the face of the opponent is a weapon to intimidate, harass and provoke that person into doing something foolish. Once accomplished, as fast as you can say "macaca," the embarrassing film clip is sent, oh, everywhere in the universe.
Now that we know that the paper's executive editor is married to a Collins staffer, it definitely sounds like there's a huge conflict of interest in the paper denouncing both tracking by the Allen campaign in particular and the modern practice of tracking in general. Even worse is the paper's assertion that any gaffe captured on video is really provoked by the opponent. (One wonders what S.R. Sidarth, the famous Jim Webb volunteer in 2006, would have to say about that.)

Given the unsightliness of this arrangement, it's perhaps not surprising that none of the interested parties are willing to talk about it. If anything changes, we'll let you know.

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[luckyleftyme2]

5. maybe we should post like the right

I dug this up ob the web.

She voted for the 2001/2005 tax cuts and voted for the 2003 $350 billion tax cut for the wealthy
She supports repealing the estate tax
She voted for the bankruptcy bill, voted against tax subsidies for the US jobs that go offshore
She voted to allow lobbyists to make some gifts to the Congress
She voted in favor of confirming Judge Samuel Alito knowing full well he is against Roe v. Wade
She voted ‘yes’ on the flag burning Constitutional amendment
She voted to authorize military force against the sovereign nation of Iraq
She voted in favor of the Military Commissions Bill (pro-torture and not a lick of peace in it)
She supports the Real ID Act and instead of fixing this Act to protect American’s privacy, she wants to move it ahead to ‘forget about it until later’
She voted in favor of diverting Homeland Security funds to low risk areas of America rather than to the high risk areas
She refused to subpoena the White House after Katrina, even when she had the power to do so as Chairwoman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
She had the NAACP investigated for speaking out against Bush back in 2004
Yep, we’ve learned in the last six to seven years that Ms. Collins is a jackboot licking Bush supporter and is a party loyalist. Her character right now as it stands stinks like a rotting fish head. What else have we learned of Ms. Collins’ character? Oh that’s right…

She’s a liar and a flip flopper to advance her political aspirations:

She said back in 1996 that she would only run for two terms and then she’s finished (liar!). Our own Craig here at Turn Maine Blue has the audio of her saying this, but for those of us who were watching our televisions as she said this know that there’s a video of her also exclaiming this as well.
She’s now for increasing the minimum wage in this country, but has her office backtracking on the fact that she’s always voted against it (I can’t remember the excuses they’ve given but they’re lame ones and that could be the reason)
She recently voted against the troop increase that Bush wants, but that’s because she know wants to be seen as a ‘liberal’ or a ‘moderate’, but of course, we Mainers know that she’s neither.
There’s more to her record, of course, with the biggest one being that she had the power to do oversight of the Bush Cabal over the past six to seven years, but didn’t:

[high density]

6. Yeah, I think he forgot that he was (is) running for the entire state, not just the 1st district

He's run a very boring political campaign. Where's he getting the money to run these horrible ads?

[RBInMaine]

7. Yup, so sad. It should be VERY close, and he has made mistake after mistake.

His ads are aloof and non-specific to Maine and Mainers. Hers are excelllent, featuring Maine people, etc. People up in the 2nd district don't give a shit where he went to college. They want to know that he understands them and their values and that he is going to fight for their jobs. For Maine Senate you have to run 2 campaigns, one for "each Maine." He has run a SHITTY campaign in the 2nd, plain and simple, and Collins is whipping his ass up here. IT DIDN'T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY !

[sandyd921]

8. I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet

I and others are working hard to close the gap. Unlike most others I encounter online, I still think there's a chance to turn this around. The paid staffers in the Dem office I volunteer at say that they have been successful in changing the votes of 40 -50% of Democratic and unaffiliated voters who initially say they are supporting Collins. Huge splashy ads are not the only thing that gets elections won. It's lots of hard elbow grease by volunteers and staffers that can turn things around. Have we been "Swift-boated" by the card check propaganda? There I agree with you. But I'm not ready to say it's over.

By the way, I expect a new poll to be out soon, based on my having been polled just a few days ago. They asked about both the presidential and senate races and props 1 and 2.