ME-Sen GOP Poll Watch: Republicans Want to Melt Snowe

According to the latest PPP poll.

It’s been clear for a long time now that Maine Republicans want to swap out Olympia Snowe for someone more conservative. Our newest poll in the state finds that hasn’t changed: only 33% of primary voters in the state say they would support Snowe next year to 58% who prefer a generic ‘more conservative candidate.’

The gripe with Snowe is pretty straight forward. 58% of primary voters think she’s too liberal to 37% who think she’s ideologically where she should be. Most GOP voters don’t really think Snowe belongs in their party- 34% think she ought to be an independent, 33% think she should be a Democrat, and only 27% feel that the GOP is indeed her rightful place.

If the GOP does not renominate Sen. Olympia Snowe, they face the real possibility of a Democrat take over of the seat. But, will today’s Tea Party based GOP tolerate RINOS any longer – even if it means a loss of a vote in the caucus?

Snowe’s approval rating with Republican primary voters is a narrowly positive 47/44 spread. It may seem surprising that her generic reelect numbers are so bad when she’s above ground on approval but to keep those numbers in perspective Lisa Murkowski’s approval with Republicans in January of 2010 was 77/13 and Mike Castle’s in March of 2009 at an identical point in the cycle was 69/24. Their far superior numbers didn’t prevent them from being taken out by the Tea Party.

The appetite is definitely there for someone to replace Olympia Snowe. Whether the folks who have already signed up to do it- Andrew Ian Dodge and Scott D’Amboise– are capable of doing so is another question. D’Amboise has only a 5% favorability rating with primary voters and 84% don’t know enough about him to offer an opinion. Dodge is even more obscure with just a 2% positive rating and 86% of of voters saying they’re ambivalent toward him. Because they’re so obscure Snowe leads a primary with them in the mix at 43% to 18% for D’Amboise and 10% for Dodge.

And, then again, Snowe might run as an independent like Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski.

The entire poll is here.