Last night, the United States Senate held a key procedural vote to begin consideration of Harry Reid’s healthcare reform bill, and both of Maine’s Senators voted against consideration of the bill.

The final tally was directly along the party line, with 60 Democrats voting to consider and 39 Republicans voting against (Republican Senator Voinovich did not vote).

Heading into the vote last night, the biggest question marks were Democratic Senators Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, and Republican Olympia Snowe. Most sources indicated Susan Collins was a solid “no” without question.

This is not the only opportunity the United State Senate has to kill healthcare reform.  The filibuster remains a weapon that will likely be danced around multiple times as this debate takes shape. Essentially any time an amendment is offered to the bill, there is an opportunity to filibuster, and when it comes time for a final reading and bringing the bill to the floor – that is when the real filibuster test will come.

So, in other words this is the first minor test, but this is hardly the last fight.

The real question now is if Snowe’s vote against consideration means that she will eventually vote no on the final bill.

Many moderate Democrats such as Landrieu and Lincoln, as well as Senator Bennet of Colorado, Mark Warner of Virginia and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut have all signaled real problems with a final bill that would include a public option.  Lieberman has promised he will without a doubt filibuster a public option.

All of this means that moderate Democrats are likely to steer this bill more toward the center, and the idea of a public option “trigger” – something originally assigned to Snowe – will likely get a second look.

In other words, this bill which Snowe essentially just voted no on is about as far left as the bill will get, and the more centrist the bill gets, the closer Snowe will get to voting yes.

Collins, on the other hand, seems increasingly entrenched in the “no to reform” side of the isle, and has not signaled any interest in this bill, or a more moderate version of it.

Which is to say, that going forward Snowe will again be the big question mark.