PORTLAND – Her state may have morphed from red to blue over the past half century, but Olympia Snowe seems as safe a bet for re-election as any Republican in the U.S. Senate.

As Democrats seek to capture the half-dozen seats they need to wrest control of the Senate, unseating Snowe is shaping up as the longest of long shots, reflected by the scant support that their nominee, Jean Hay Bright, has received at the national level.

Snowe remains undefeated in her two prior Senate races, eight congressional bids and three runs for the state Legislature. She has near-universal name recognition, strong voter approval ratings, a rich campaign treasury and a long-established reputation as a voice of moderation who helps forge bipartisan compromises.

Lined up against her are Hay Bright, who embraced Dennis Kucinich for president in 2004 and was rewarded with his appearance at a campaign fundraiser this month, and independent Bill Slavick, a retired university professor and peace activist. Neither of Snowe’s opponents has held elective office.

Despite its small size, Maine has a tradition of electing senators who rise to national prominence, including Democrats Edmund Muskie and George Mitchell and Republicans Margaret Chase Smith and William Cohen.

As a member of the Finance Committee, Snowe reined in her party’s push for deeper tax cuts and joined Maine’s other senator, Republican Susan Collins, in the “Gang of 14” that helped avert a bruising battle over judicial filibusters. She has also been a leader on fisheries legislation, an important issue in Maine.

Hay Bright – her legal last name – is an Ohio native who moved to Maine during the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s and ran unsuccessfully in Democratic Senate and congressional primaries during the 1990s. A former newspaper reporter, she has been active among anti-war, pro-labor elements of her party and drew upon their support in defeating the more mainstream Eric Mehnert in the June primary.

Campaigning with tight finances and without television ads, Hay Bright has tried to identify Snowe with the Bush administration and portray her as less independent and moderate than she is generally perceived.

Slavick has participated in peace demonstrations and penned letters to the editor expressing concerns about U.S. foreign policy and what he sees as excessive spending on the military, but has never before run for office.

This race has attracted relatively little attention, perhaps in part because Snowe is seen as a prohibitive favorite. In her 2000 contest against Democrat Mark Lawrence, then president of the state Senate, she was re-elected with 69 percent of the vote.

Asserting that she is taking nothing for granted this year, Snowe said her level of campaign activities is no different than in the past. She lined up a full schedule of appearances after returning from Washington for the final five weeks before the Nov. 7 election.

“You never know what to expect, including the changing political environment,” she said, predicting that the battle for control of the Senate could be very close.

With no single issue foremost in her campaign, she is running on her overall record, detailing to voters her stance on issues that range from health care to Iraq and her role in saving the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard during the last round of base closings.

“Maine people appreciate my independent voice and my willingness to stand up to the president and the party, to be a voice of reason and a consensus builder,” she said. There are fewer and fewer such voices as politics becomes increasingly polarized, she said, and “that’s not good for Maine or for America.”

Hay Bright said the issues she is emphasizing in her campaign include getting out of Iraq and creating a national single-payer health care and energy self-sufficiency through renewable resources.

To spread her message, she has been speaking at public events around the state and using the Internet. She proudly proclaims her candidacy as a Democrat on her campaign signs, a rarity in a state in which politicians rarely advertise party affiliation. She has campaign ads ready to air on TV but needs money to buy the time.

A sore point with Hay Bright is a lack of even minimal support from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which she says has brushed off her race and focuses its resources elsewhere.

“I do have support within the state and everybody in the state knows this is a winnable race, but it’s frustrating that the national organization doesn’t recognize that,” she said.

Still, Hay Bright maintains that her support has picked up, especially after Ned Lamont’s victory this summer in the Democratic primary in Connecticut highlighted the vulnerability of another veteran senator, Joe Lieberman.

Still, as she headed into the home stretch of the campaign, she had raised a scant $80,000, a far cry from the $3.5 million that Snowe had taken in. Slavick, too, was operating with an empty wallet, banking on candidate debates and face-to-face discussions with prospective voters to lash out at what he sees as an administration skewed toward the military-industrial complex and the wealthy.

That no prominent Democrat came forward to challenge Snowe this year comes as no surprise to Amy Fried, a political science professor at the University of Maine.

“She and Collins have the highest approval ratings of any senators in the country,” Fried said. “They’ve cultivated their images as moderate and independent senators, and that’s the sort of senator that Maine people generally like. It would be very difficult for Democrats to mount a competitive campaign with any candidate.”

In addition, this year’s gubernatorial race pitting Democrat John Baldacci against four challengers has sucked up most of the state’s political oxygen. Much of what remains has been directed toward a statewide referendum on a Colorado-style Taxpayer Bill of Rights and battles for the state Legislature.

Maine’s two Senate seats have been the lone bright spot for Republicans in a state where they were long dominant. Among registered voters, those enrolled as Republicans rank third, behind Democrats and independents, who have the biggest share. In addition to controlling the governorship, Democrats hold both congressional seats and both houses of the Legislature.

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On the Net:

Jean Hay Bright: http://www.jeanhaybright.us

Bill Slavick: http://www.slavickforussenate.com

Olympia Snowe: http://www.olympiasnowe.com