Independent Voters Hold Key in Maine Governor’s Race
Kenric Ward /
AUGUSTA, Maine—Outspoken and under fire, Republican Gov. Paul LePage is in danger of losing his re-election bid.
One of the most conservative governors in the country, LePage triangulated his way to victory in 2010 with 38 percent of the vote. Independent candidate Eliot Cutler, who siphoned enough Democratic support to give LePage the victory, is running again this year. But the Georgetown-educated lawyer is not drawing the numbers he did four years ago.
The latest polls show Democrat Rep. Mike Michaud holding a slim lead around 40 percent.
Larry Sabato’s Center for Politics lists LePage as one of the nation’s three most vulnerable GOP governors up for re-election, along with Rick Scott of Florida and Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania.
Ascendant Democrats—who regained control of the legislature in 2012—have dogged LePage from the beginning of his term. He hasn’t backed down.
The former Waterville mayor has told the NAACP to “kiss my butt,” called the IRS “the new Gestapo” and said he wouldn’t be afraid to tell President Obama to “go to hell.”
Shattering any notion of bipartisanship, he turned a traditional welcoming speech at the opening of the 2013 Legislature into a full-frontal attack on Democrats.
LePage vetoed a record 38 bills that session, mainly on fiscal grounds. Among his vetoes, he cut state spending and blocked higher snowmobile fees.
LePage’s pro-business and tough-on-crime agenda plays well in the small towns and rural sections of Maine.
Robert Norton of Rockland said he supports LePage’s decision to quit the National Governors Association. LePage called the $60,000 annual dues a waste of state money.
“They are too politically correct and everybody is lovey-dovey and no decisions are ever made,” LePage declared.
Taxpayer groups, meanwhile, applaud LePage for curbing welfare spending and putting a five-year cap on benefits. Before 2010, Maine was the only state to rank among the top six in per-capita use of food stamps, Medicaid and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.
Michaud, now representing Maine’s 2nd District, would become the nation’s first openly gay governor. He’s banking on center-left independent voters to abandon Cutler, whose fiscal and social agenda virtually mirrors Michaud’s.