One of the first thing you do if you're considering a run for office is to register an appropriate domain name. In the political gold rush that has ensued since Olympia Snowe announced the end of her re-election campaign last night, the shifting landscape of URLs gives us some ideas which candidates are staking their claims.

Since many candidates already own suitable domain names, such as chelliepingree.com or rosaformaine.com, registrations won't tell us everything, but they're a start.

First, the most interesting:

In what can only be described as an absolutely shocking development, Maine Senator Olympia Snowe has announced that she will end her race for re-election.

Snowe has been a cornerstone of Maine politics for decades, serving three terms in the Senate and in the House and State Legislature before that.

Snowe had given no previous indication of her plans and, in fact, the outlook on her political future only a few hours ago was considered incredibly bright.

Senator Ed Muskie came the closest of any Mainer, save James G. Blaine and perhaps Hannibal Hamlin, of becoming President of the United States.

Instead, forty years ago today, a chain of events began that saw him lose his front-runner status in the 1972 Democratic Presidential Primary, lose the nomination to Senator George McGovern and would eventually see Richard Nixon re-elected for a second term.

It is perhaps another sign of rightward drift from two of the few moderates left in the tea-party influenced Republican Party.

With the announcement that the campaign for equal marriage in Maine has gathered enough signatures to put a question on marriage back on the ballot this November, and the announcement yesterday that the clean energy initiative has failed to qualify for 2012, we now have a better idea of how the ballot will look for the general election this year.