Editor's blog

Susan Collins' re-election bid, which was once of the country's most closely watched U.S. Senate races, is becoming increasingly more secure for Collins, a new Politicker.com analysis shows.

The race is currently ranked as the 12th most-competitive race out of the 35 U.S. Senate races this year.

"On paper this race should be one of the most competitive in the county. This year Republican Susan Collins faces a good candidate in a good year for Democrats. Maine voters are the poorest in the region, they dislike the Iraq war, they allow high taxes. But it turns out they also love their Republican female U.S. senators," said Politicker.com Managing Editor James Pindell, the author of The Pindell Report. "There is still a chance Democrat Tom Allen can gain from the environment around him, but those opportunities get smaller by the day."

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Eliot Spitzer is just the latest in a long list of political sex scandals that goes back to the Continental Congress. Politicker.com has a list of America’s Top 53 Political Sex Scandals that includes prostitutes, sex with minors, strippers, extramarital affairs, massages, nude swim parties, and even a murder. CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE LIST

Several Democrats are interested in succeeding State Rep. Ted Koffman, who is term-limited in 2008Elsie Flemings, a young environmental activist, will seek the Democratic nomination for State Representative in District 35, where Democrat Ted Koffman is term-limited. Flemings is the coordinator of the Union River Watershed Coalition and serves on the state Citizen Trade Policy Commission.

Earlier this month, the New York Times referred to Flemings as "quiet powerhouse" in a story about human ecology. The story noted that her project "on the economic impact of big-box stores led to a law that was signed last summer: Maine became the first state to require large retail stores to file economic-impact assessments." She represented the United States at the United Nations' Commission on Sustainable Development.