This Splendid Game: Maine Campaigns and Elections, 1940-2002

This Splendid Game offers a unique close-up examination of seminal U.S. Senate, U.S. House, and gubernatorial elections-and one referendum vote-in Maine. Potholm focuses especially on the dynamics of candidates’ and groups’ use of polling and the media.

Reviews

For the scholar and the casual observer of political dynamics alike, reading This Splendid Game is time well invested. (The Times Record)

No one can write about Maine politics from quite the vantage point that Chris Potholm has. This Splendid Game is a fascinating read. (L Sandy Maisel, Director, Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement, Colby College)

Chris Potholm’s This Splendid Game gives specialists and general readers something that is long overdue―a detailed and incisive analysis of modern political campaigns in Maine by a scholar who has studied, taught, and worked in most of them. (Christopher M. Beam, Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library, Bates College)

Highly recommended. (CHOICE)

Potholm once again demonstrates that he is the leading scholar and authority on twentieth-century Maine politics. This Splendid Game fills a significant void in Maine’s political historiography. (Greg Gallant, director, Margaret Chase Smith Library)

No man or woman should step out onto the campaign trail without reading Potholm’s excellent analysis of the Maine campaigns and politics since 1940. . . . Whether you pick up This Splendid Game to plan your run for Congress or just for the intrigue, you will come to believe Potholm’s declaration on the first page, ‘Politics in Maine is the way politics should be.’ (Sun Journal)

Maine’s Foremost Political Guru! (Kennebec Journal)

Packed with vibrant analysis. (Portland Press Herald)

This Splendid Game is a splendid analysis. (Bangor Daily News)