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County results Reed: 50–60% 60–70% 70-80% Coffin: 50–60% 60–70% | |||||||||||||||||
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The 1960 Maine gubernatorial special election was a special election held to officially elect a governor of Maine following the death of Governor Clinton Clauson. It took place on November 8, 1960, with Republican governor John Reed (who, as Maine Senate president, automatically took office upon Clauson's death) defeating Democrat Frank M. Coffin.
The election was also the first time since Maine was admitted to the Union that the state did not hold its election in September. Traditionally, Maine had held its elections two months before the rest of the nation, which had help give birth to the phrase "As Maine goes, so goes the nation" and its status as a bellwether state. However, following a 1957 referendum, the state constitution was amended to hold all elections after 1958 in November and shift from two-year to four-year terms.
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | John H. Reed (Incumbent) | 219,768 | 52.67% | − | |
Democratic | Frank M. Coffin | 197,447 | 47.33% | − | |
Majority | 22,321 | 5.35% |
Edmund Sixtus Muskie was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 58th United States Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter from 1980 to 1981, a United States Senator from Maine from 1959 to 1980, the 64th Governor of Maine from 1955 to 1959, and a member of the Maine House of Representatives from 1946 to 1951. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for vice president in the 1968 presidential election.
The Maine State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maine. It is a bicameral body composed of the lower house Maine House of Representatives and the upper house Maine Senate. The legislature convenes at the State House in Augusta, where it has met since 1832.
The 1978 United States Senate elections were held on November 7, in the middle of Democratic President Jimmy Carter's term. The 33 seats of Class 2 were contested in regular elections. Special elections were also held to fill vacancies.
The 1960 United States Senate elections coincided with the election of John F. Kennedy as president on November 8, 1960. The 33 seats of Class 2 were contested in regular elections. A special election was also held on June 28, 1960, for a mid-term vacancy in North Dakota where Democrats flipped a seat to expand their majority to 66–34. As Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson was elected Vice President, Mike Mansfield became the new majority leader.
The 1958 United States Senate elections were elections for the United States Senate which occurred in the middle of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's second term. Thirty-two seats of Class 1 were contested in regular elections, the new state of Alaska held its first Senate elections for its Class 2 and 3 seats, and two special elections were held to fill vacancies.
The 1954 United States Senate elections was a midterm election in the first term of Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidency. The 32 Senate seats of Class 2 were contested in regular elections, and six special elections were held to fill vacancies. Eisenhower's Republican party lost a net of two seats to the Democratic opposition. This small change was just enough to give Democrats control of the chamber with the support of an Independent who agreed to caucus with them; he later officially joined the party in April 1955.
The Pennsylvania Republican Party (PAGOP) is the state affiliate of the Republican Party in Pennsylvania. It is headquartered in Harrisburg. Its chair is Lawrence Tabas and is the second largest political party in the state behind the Pennsylvania Democratic Party.
John Hathaway Reed was the 67th Governor of Maine, holding office during the 1960s. He was once an Aroostook County potato farmer. Reed was a Republican who took office following the death of Governor Clinton Clauson.
In the United States, a governor serves as the chief executive and commander-in-chief in each of the fifty states and in the five permanently inhabited territories, functioning as head of state and head of government therein. While like all officials in the United States, checks and balances are placed on the office the governor, significant powers may include ceremonial head of state, executive, legislative, judicial, and military. As such, governors are responsible for implementing state laws and overseeing the operation of the state executive branch. As state leaders, governors advance and pursue new and revised policies and programs using a variety of tools, among them executive orders, executive budgets, and legislative proposals and vetoes. Governors carry out their management and leadership responsibilities and objectives with the support and assistance of department and agency heads, many of whom they are empowered to appoint. A majority of governors have the authority to appoint state court judges as well, in most cases from a list of names submitted by a nominations committee.
Clinton Amos Clauson was an American politician who served as the 66th governor of Maine from January 1959 until his death in December of that year. A Democrat, Clauson previously held office in Waterville, Maine, where he practiced chiropractic, including serving as the 35th mayor of Waterville from 1956 to 1957.
Robert Nance Haskell was a Maine state senator and the 65th Governor of Maine for five days in 1959.
The 2010 United States elections were held on Tuesday, November 2, 2010, in the middle of Democratic President Barack Obama's first term. Republicans ended unified Democratic control of Congress and the presidency by winning a majority in the House of Representatives and gained seats in the Senate despite Democrats holding Senate control.
The 1966 Maine gubernatorial election took place on November 8, 1966. Incumbent Republican Governor John Reed, had been elected to finish the term of Clinton Clauson in 1960, was then re-elected in 1962 and became the state's first four-year Governor. Reed was seeking a second full four-year term, and was challenged by Democrat Kenneth M. Curtis, having defeated James Erwin for the Republican nomination. Curtis defeated Reed, beginning a twenty-year period of Republican isolation from the Blaine House.
The 1962 Maine gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 1962. Incumbent Republican Governor John Reed, had been elected in 1960 in a special election to finish the final two years of Clinton Clauson's term following his death, and was seeking a full term of his own. He faced off against Democratic challenger Maynard C. Dolloff. Reed was re-elected by one of the narrowest margins in Maine history – a mere 483 votes.
The 1958 Maine gubernatorial election took place on September 8, 1958. Incumbent Democratic Governor Edmund Muskie, was term limited and seeking election to the United States Senate, thus did not run. Democrat Clinton Clauson, then mayor of Waterville, unexpectedly defeated Muskie's chosen Democratic candidate in the primary, and faced off against the popular previous two term Republican Governor, Horace Hildreth in the general election. Hildreth was the heavy favorite to win, however Clauson was able to narrowly defeat him, retaining the Blaine House for the Democrats.
"As Maine goes, so goes the nation" was once a maxim in United States politics. The phrase described Maine's reputation as a bellwether state for presidential elections. Maine's September election of a governor predicted the party outcome of the November presidential election in 23 out of the 29 presidential election years from 1820 to 1932: namely 1820–1844, 1852, 1860–1880, 1888, 1896–1908 and 1920–1932; more importantly, as Maine was a generally Republican-leaning state, the margin of the September elections compared to expectations could predict national November results more than the identity of the winning party in Maine. A contest still won by the Republicans but with a narrower margin than usual would still predict good Democratic results nationally.
The 2018 United States elections were held on Tuesday, November 6, 2018. These midterm elections occurred during Incumbent Republican President Donald Trump's term. Although the Republican Party increased its majority in the Senate, unified Republican control of Congress and the White House was brought to an end when the Democratic Party won control of the House of Representatives in what was widely characterized as a "blue wave" election as Democrats also gained governorships, other statewide offices, and state legislative chambers.
United States gubernatorial elections were held on 8 November 1960, in 27 states. The elections were concurrent with the House elections, the Senate elections and the presidential election.
The 2023 United States elections were held, in large part, on Tuesday, November 7, 2023. The off-year election included gubernatorial and state legislative elections in a few states, as well as numerous citizen initiatives, mayoral races, and a variety of other local offices on the ballot. At least three special elections to the United States Congress were scheduled as either deaths or vacancies arose. The Democratic Party retained control of the governorship in Kentucky, flipped the Wisconsin Supreme Court and held a seat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, gained six seats in the New Jersey General Assembly, and won back unified control of the Virginia General Assembly, while Republicans also flipped the governorship in Louisiana and narrowly retained Mississippi's governorship. The election cycle also saw Ohio voting to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution and legalize cannabis for recreational use. The results were widely seen as a success for the Democratic Party.