MAINE: As the Nation Goes

One September day in 1840 the proud, independent-minded people of Maine woke up to find that they had changed their political complexion overnight. The Whig candidate for governor, Edward Kent, and his party’s candidates for Congress had upset the Democrats. Out of the victory came a new Whig battle cry for the national elections that were to follow two months later:

Oh, have you heard how old Maine

went?

She went hell-bent for Governor Kent—

And Tippecanoe and Tyler, too!

Sure enough, the old Tippecanoe River veteran, General William Henry Harrison, and his fellow Whig, Vice Presidential Candidate John Tyler, defeated Democratic Incumbent Martin Van Buren in the presidential race that November. Exulted the Whigs: “As Maine goes, so goes the nation.”

The slogan endured, despite the fact that in the 29 presidential elections since 1840 it has been wrong nearly half (twelve elections) the time. Cracked Democratic Strategist Jim Farley, after Franklin Roosevelt swept 46 states in 1936: “As Maine goes, so goes Vermont.”

Last week Maine laid the slogan to rest. By a vote of 63,710 to 36,065, the electorate of Maine decided to change the date of its elections. The basic reason for the old September date—the probability that hard winter weather and impassable, broken roads would keep most voters from the polls—had long since passed. Beginning in 1960, on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November, as the nation goes to the polls for state and congressional as well as presidential elections, so will go Maine.