Actually the above posters are right that suburban whites fleeing Massachusetts helped push the state to the Right in the 80's and 90's. While the orther Northern New England States like Vermont and Maine were left relatively unchanged and have since moved much farther to the left then New Hampshire if anything New Hampshire moved in the opposite direction, towards the GOP. The continued trends among Native New Hampshire residents, migrants from other states, and Canada have since 2000 moved the State to the left.
Neither are libertarian. Maine is a socially Liberal, economically moderate to populist state. New Hampshire is a fiscally conservative(but decreasingly so) socially moderate state. If the GOP in Northern New England could somehow seperate itself from the National GOP they could indeed restore some modicum of success in Maine, New Hampshire, and even in Vermont.
The Republican Party in Maine seems pretty strong. They have 2 Republican senators (albeit very moderate ones).
Yes but Collins and Snowe do not have complete control as evidenced by the 2006 Governor nominee. If one of the other two guys had won the primary we would probably have a GOP Governor in Maine today.
Did you just say that Maine has a lower amount of religiosity than normal? That's crazy and you know it.
I'm pretty certain New England states have lower religious observance than other states. Definitely true for New Hampshire. Do you have data to the contrary?
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/03/09/number_of_ne_catholics_tumbles/
"Silk said the study found that Irish-Americans, along with people of Jewish ancestry and Asian-Americans, are disproportionately represented among those who report no religious affiliation.
"The other thing is that New England Catholics have become sort of like New England Protestants - not particularly attached" to religion, he said. Northern New England is now less religious than the Pacific Northwest - long the nation's least religious region - the study found."
100 years ago I will bet that Northern New England would have beat many other regions of the country in religiousity. Why has this been almost completely reversed since then? The children of overly religious parents breaking away yet keeping there affliations to there churches. I mean there is almost nothing Puritanical about the Congregationalist or Unitarian churches anymore.
