Maine has the good fortune of having two excellent candidates running for the U.S. Senate.

Tom Allen, a Democrat who has served Maine's 1st Congressional District in the House of Representatives for 12 years, is an intelligent, thoughtful and dedicated lawmaker. He has taken principled positions on the Iraq War (he was an early opponent of it), he has effectively promoted the interests of Maine's natural resource industries such as fishing and agriculture, and he has fought to expand access to health care for those increasingly unable to pay for it.

Allen's positions reflect his district, the southern part of the state, which has traditionally supported legislators from the liberal end of the Democratic party. He fits squarely into that description, and he has voted 98 percent of the time with the Democrats during the last Congress.

Allen's campaign proposals on the economy, the environment, energy, education and health care -- many of which are very expensive -- mirror the liberal philosophy that government is largely the answer to our national problems. And after almost a decade of Republican assault on government regulation, there's a good argument to be made for more government regulation, at least in certain areas, particularly as we survey the wreckage on Wall Street and the decimated retirement accounts of far too many Americans.

Collins is one of the two least partisan members of the Senate, according to a Washington Post analysis. Collins has voted with Republicans only 67 percent of the time. (The only person who has voted with her party less consistently than Collins: Maine Republican Senator Olympia Snowe.)

Collins rose to prominence in the Senate forging substantial legislative victories in intelligence and postal reform, post-9/11 security measures and crucial legislation to strengthen emergency management efforts after the federal government's botched response to Hurricane Katrina. She has used her office to help keep traffic flowing easily through immigration stations on the Canadian border and pushed for fewer handouts to corporate farmers and better benefits to hungry families in the Farm Bill. Much of this work has been done in concert with Democrats and against the wishes of her own party leaders.

Yet Collins' particularly Maine brand of mild-mannered and bipartisan Republicanism has been tarnished by some bad votes.

She has been resolutely pro-choice during her career, but that record was undermined by her vote to confirm Bush Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, whose judicial record includes a number of instances when he voted to restrict a woman's access to abortion.

And she sided with the Bush administration and voted against a bill to restore habeas corpus rights for terrorism suspects, which we believe was a mistake.

But while we did not agree with these votes, we are not counted among those partisans who will condemn a politician's entire career because of several wrong votes, no matter how consequential they may have been. On balance, we believe Collins' record as a moderate, bipartisan lawmaker should stand.

Which is why we endorse her for re-election to the Senate. Tom Allen would make a good senator; we have no doubt about that. But the job of a senator is to represent the entire state, and Collins' largely centrist stance and ability to reach across party boundaries equips her better to represent the whole of Maine, where politics range from rural conservative to urban liberal.

Furthermore, there's a strategic reason to cast a vote in favor of Collins. After the election, we expect the Senate to be controlled by an even larger Democratic margin than now -- though not enough Democratic votes to pass legislation without the help of moderate Republicans.

As Washington Post political reporter Shailagh Murray writes, if the Senate Democrats have 57 or 58 votes post-election, "the most powerful people in the Senate will be a handful of Republicans like Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, along with Joe Lieberman."

And that means a lot for Maine. A thusly empowered swing-voting Sen. Susan Collins will simply be able to do more for Maine than a newly elected Tom Allen, member of the Democratic majority. She also would be able to temper the excesses of a Democratic majority.

Were Collins to win, we hope that Allen would remain in public service.

He has done a lot for Maine and stands ready, we believe, to do more. That could mean a position in a Democratic administration in Washington, or work, perhaps, for one of the policy think tanks that contributes to the public debate about matters of consequence.

Tom Allen is amply suited to continue to help Maine. He just had the misfortune in this election season to be up against a candidate whose broader appeal gives her the edge for this particular job.