Pingree tried to get King to drop Maine Senate bid

Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree told a local Maine newspaper that she dropped out of the race for the Senate due to fear of helping elect a Republican if she stayed in.

The Democratic lawmaker intended to run for the seat left open after Maine’s Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe announced she would not run for reelection this year.

{mosads}Pingree told Sea Coast Online that she backed away from the temping race when Maine’s former Gov. Angus King opted to enter the race as an independent – a move she “tried to talk him out of.”

“The minute it became a three-way race, the numbers could lead you to a Republican member of the U.S. Senate. Is it worth the risk with the balance of power is so critical?” Pingree told reporter Deborah Mcdermott.

Further, “if Angus had run (as a Democrat) in the primary, I wouldn’t have left. There was nothing I was nervous about with my own campaign. But it’s just the case in Maine that, in a three-way race, Republicans get around 40 percent and the Democras and the independent split the 60 percent,” Pingree told the publication.

According to the report, Pingree intends to run for reelection to the House, saying that she’s “happy there.”