Various people have contacted me about the U.S. Senate race shaping up in Maine between Sen. Collins and Rep Allen. One of the first was a friend of mine who is good friends with Lance Dutson. At the time Lance was first talking with the Collins campaign about possibly working with the campaign. My friend knew that I’m friends with Lance and was also the technology coordinator for the Lamont campaign. He wanted to know if I’d be willing to speak with Lance about working on a Senate campaign.

I told my friend I’d be willing to offer advice, even though I’d supporting Allen. Lance and I never did talk about the campaign, but I’m glad he is working with Collins. Lance is a good guy. He’s smart and will do a good job. Since I’m a fierce democrat, in the good old Jeffersonian way, I like to see good people working on both sides.

Another person contacted me concerning the election in Maine. She noted that she had heard from people in Connecticut that many of them were unhappy about the U.S. Senate race gaining such national attention. She expressed concern about the national attention on the Collins/Allen race and how folks from Maine might feel about that.

I must admit that my ties to Maine have gotten weaker over the years. I was born in Presque Isle, but moved to Massachusetts when I was a toddler. Since then, I continue to go to Maine to visit friends or vacation, but with gas prices, even this has become less frequent.

I can see how folks from Maine might be reticent about national attention to their Senate race and I did speak with folks in Connecticut who were less than pleased about the amount of attention the Lamont/Lieberman race received. However, many people in Connecticut I know were pleased with the attention the race got. It certainly brought many notable politicians to the State that wouldn’t have been there if there wasn’t such an exciting race and it certainly brought

So, to my friends in Maine, get ready. You are likely to have an exciting campaign, which I believe will be good for democracy and for the State as a whole. You will get outside attention. On Saturday at 2 PM, according to Howie Klein, Rep. Allen will be live blogging on Firedoglake. Howie Klein was great in helping with the Lamont campaign from afar and I believe will be a great help to people supporting Rep. Allen. Please stop by at Firedoglake for the live blogging.

(Cross posted on TurnMaineBlue.)