BY LARRY GRARD

Staff Writer

From around the country, journalists keep calling University of Maine political science professor Mark Brewer.

They ask Brewer about U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe.

Brewer said the inquiries typify "the incredible amount of national attention" Maine's senior senator has attracted since Tuesday, when she cast the lone Republican vote for health care legislation backed by President Barack Obama.

"They want to know," Brewer told an audience Friday morning at Colby College, "what's going on in Maine. I would say the best term for Maine's political climate is 'pragmatic.'"

On Friday night, the senator herself spoke during a Colby trustees dinner.

The day of her vote Tuesday, Snowe referred to the importance of the health care issue.

"When history calls, history calls," Snowe said.

Brewer was among the panelists for a Colby symposium titled "United States Senators from Maine: 50 Years of Influencing the Nation."

Colby professor L. Sandy Maisel pointed said the conference captured the moment.

"While in real estate everything is about location," Maisel said, "putting on a conference is all about timing."

Morning panelists dealt with the campaigns of Maine senators, since Margaret Smith first ran for the House of Representatives in 1940. Journalists discussed coverage of the state's senatorial delegation in the afternoon, followed by a talk on the historical strength of Maine's senatorial delegation.

It is clear that Snowe and U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, thrive because the state's political culture is "different," Brewer said.

Brewer's colleague at UMaine, Amy Fried, added that it has become increasingly difficult to challenge Snowe and Collins. Fried referred to last year's race between Collins and former U.S. Rep. Tom Allen.

"Tom Allen was a viable candidate, there was the Obama wave, and Collins won big anyway," Fried said. "I would say, at this point, that there probably isn't (a challenge)."

Douglas Harris, a professor at Loyola College in Maryland, said he was "a skeptic on Maine exceptionalism" when he began writing his symposium paper. Fried, who told Harris of the Colby conference, convinced him otherwise, Harris said.

"Moderates and party outliers used to be plentiful," Harris said. "Their members are dwindling in a polarized political arena. But they're majority-makers."

Moderates are vulnerable to "issue ads," Harris said, and also to primaries.

Harris noted that Republicans elected to national office in Maine began supporting the party less when Smith was elected. He then displayed a table, showing that since Rhode Island's Lincoln Chafee left office, there are no remaining Republican senators to the left of Snowe and Collins.

As in Snowe farthest to the left, followed by Collins.

Harris noted that Snowe penned an op-ed in the New York Times called "We didn't have to lose Sen. Specter," referring, of course, to Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter's defection to the Democratic Party.

UMaine professor Richard J. Powell said Maine stands out in electing women to Congress.

Snowe, Collins and U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree comprise three-fourths of the state's delegation.

"We conclude," Powell said, "that there's something different about Maine."

Larry Grard -- 861-9239

lgrard@centralmaine.com