Tom Allen's campaign communications director Carol Andrews reflected on a recent Rasmussen poll of the Maine senate race showing Collins lead reduced to 7 points by saying the numbers showed Mainers were "hungry for change".  Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman Matthew Miller said that the polls reflected more Mainers "tuning into the race", and claimed the numbers were a result of Allen's attempts to tie Collins to Bush.

Now that Patrick Murphy, a well known Maine pollster has released a poll showing Allen trailing by a whopping 25%, what does this mean for the Allen camp's theories? Does the fact that Collins has apparently opened up her largest lead to date mean Mainers are no longer 'hungry for change'? Or does it, as Matthew Miller said, show that Mainers are tuning in to the race and judging Allen's message?

It should also be noted that Murphy's poll shows McCain down 46-32.  While bad news for Republicans, it's even worse news for Allen. The math shows a significant number of Obama supporters splitting their ticket for Collins.

Here is all the advice you need on polls taken months before the election, where there is absolutely no evidence that they will be reflective of the voters in November: IGNORE THEM!  Ignore them when they are good and ignore them when they are bad.  The temptation to embrace the good numbers will make it impossible to repel the bad numbers that appear later. The Allen campaign is seeing that play out this week.