The Pittsburgh Press (September 12, 1944)
Maine election is landslide favoring GOP
Four PAC candidates are overwhelmed
Portland, Oregon (UP) –
A Republican landslide in the Maine “barometer” elections returned three GOP Congressmen to office and elected State Senate President Horace A. Hildreth governor, complete unofficial returns showed today.
It was the largest GOP victory margin ever scored in the traditionally Republican state, assistant National Republican chairman Marion Martin said. The Republican gubernatorial candidate received approximately 75 percent of the votes cast.
The voting proved a blow to the CIO Political Action Committee, which had campaigned actively for the election of two Democratic candidates for Congress.
Margins three to one
Returned to office were Reps. Robert Hale in the 1st district, Margaret C. Smith in the 2nd district, and Frank Fellows in the 3rd district. Mr. Hale’s margin was a little better than two-to-one. The others won by approximately three-to-one.
The election has been called a national barometer for the November presidential elections – “as Maine goes, so goes the nation” has been the saying – despite the 1940 balloting which saw the Republicans win overwhelmingly in Maine in September only to lose the presidential race in November.
Complete unofficial returns gave:
| Race | Status | Candidate | Vote | Vote % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maine Governor |  |
 Hildreth |
131,989 | 75% |
 Jullien |
51,107 | 25% |
Complete unofficial returns for Congressional contests gave:
| Race | Status | Candidate | Vote | Vote % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maine 01 | |
Hale (incumbent) |
47,580 | 69% |
| Pettis |
21,634 | 31% | ||
| Maine 02 | |
Smith (incumbent) |
45,101 | 69% |
 Staples |
20,321 | 31% | ||
| Maine 03 | |
Fellows (incumbent) |
36,486 | 77% |
| Graham |
11,145 | 23% |
CIO opposition bitter
Congressmen Hale and Smith had been opposed bitterly by the CIO-PAC, Mr. Pettis, president of the shipbuilders union in Portland and a Republican-turned-Democrat, had been expected to give Mr. Hale more of a race.
Regardless have long claimed that when the September Maine vote was 60 percent or more in their favor, they won the presidential election. This held true from the Civil War until the second Roosevelt term in 1936. That year, the Republicans won in Maine by approximately 60 percent. Again in 1940, the barometer failed when Maine went 65 percent Republican.