AUGUSTA – Regardless of what statistic you use, there are a lot of undecided voters with just a hair over two weeks to go until we choose a new governor.
The Maine Poll, released last week by MaineToday Media and conducted by Critical Insights of Portland, showed a whopping 26 percent undecided. When they pushed the respondents a little to name a preference — which way they were leaning — it dropped to 18 percent.
That’s still pretty high.
So, in addition to continuing to read your favorite local newspaper, we decided to help those of you who are undecided by compiling a list of upcoming broadcast debates. If the previous two are any indication, the debates will make for informative — and entertaining — television and radio.
Here goes:
• Tonight, 7 to 8, sponsored by WMTW-TV (Channel 8).
• Wednesday, 8 to 9 p.m., sponsored by WCSH-TV (Channel 6) and the Maine State Chamber of Commerce.
• Saturday, 7 to 8:30 p.m., live radio debate sponsored by Pierce Atwood, MaineToday Media, Critical Insights, the University of Maine School of Law and Newsradio 560 WGAN.
• Oct. 26, 7 p.m., those who live in northern Maine and get WAGM will see a live debate out of Presque Isle, sponsored by Leaders Encouraging Aroostook Development and WAGM-TV (Channel 8).
• Oct. 27, 7 to 8:30 p.m., sponsored by WABI-TV (Channel 5) in Bangor, Prepare Maine and the Maine Coalition for Excellence in Education.
• Oct. 28, 8 p.m., Maine Public Broadcasting Network debate.
• Oct. 30, 8 p.m., WGME-TV (Channel 13) and MaineToday Media host what is expected to be the final live televised debate before the Nov. 2 vote.
So pop the popcorn and settle down on the La-Z-Boy for some election-year fun.
The five candidates on the Nov. 2 ballot for governor, in alphabetical order, are: independent Eliot Cutler, Republican Paul LePage, Democrat Libby Mitchell, independent Shawn Moody and independent Kevin Scott.
WHAT’S IN THE NUMBERS?
Scott released a recent poll that shows him in third place, behind LePage and Mitchell.
Scott commissioned the poll himself and had the firm Pulse Opinion Research limit the poll to the two major-party candidates and himself, though independents Cutler and Moody are also on the gubernatorial ballot.
Mitchell received support from 40 percent of respondents, LePage received 38 percent and Scott got 8 percent, with 15 percent unsure. The automated poll, surveying 500 likely Maine voters, was conducted Oct. 7. Pulse Opinion Research used polling methodology and procedures licensed from Rasmussen Reports.
Rasmussen Reports, which has done polling in the same race, has left Scott and fellow independent candidate Moody off its poll, including only LePage, Mitchell and independent Cutler.
Cutler received 21 percent in the last Rasmussen poll.
Scott said his poll shows how inaccurate polls can be.
“It just shows polls for what they are. If you exclude the other two independents, I poll much higher. If you include the other two independents, (my support) is diluted,” he said.
He was pleased with his favorable ratings and encouraged by his increasing name recognition with voters.
“What I wanted to do with that and what the intention was, to gauge what voters are thinking of independents in general,” Scott said.
NO SIGNS OF A PARTY
An interested reader — and someone at a Cumberland Club forum last week — wanted to know why pretty much all the political signs for House, Senate and the governor’s race don’t list party affiliations of candidates.
The consensus at the forum was that the largest voting bloc in Maine is independents, so it’s best not to bother them with a party affiliation while they are zooming down the road.
The lone exception appears to be Cutler, who lists “independent” on his signs, which technically isn’t a party affiliation since independents aren’t an organized party in Maine.
GREEN CRIES FOUL
Green Independent Lynne Williams of Bar Harbor, who dropped out of the race for governor in the spring and decided to run for the state Senate, says she’s being left out by EqualityMaine, the state’s largest advocacy group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals.
Williams says the group has endorsed her Democratic opponent — Rep. Jim Schatz of Blue Hill — in the race for Senate District 28, which is coastal Hancock County.
While calling to gain support for Schatz, the group apparently is claiming there are only two people in the race: Schatz and his Republican opponent, Rep. Brian Langley of Ellsworth. But Williams is on the ballot and wants everyone to know she’s fully in the race.
“What EqualityMaine is doing is trying to marginalize me as a candidate and if any community should understand marginalization, it is the GLBT community,” she wrote.
SPEAKING OF GAY RIGHTS
Mitchell was endorsed last week by the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest civil rights group for those who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.
“Libby Mitchell is a true believer in equality,” HRC President Joe Solmonese said in a statement. “There is no doubt, that as Maine’s next governor, she will fight every day for all the people of Maine, including LGBT citizens.”
As Senate president, Mitchell voted in favor of same-sex marriage, which was later rejected in a citizen vote.
GOP AIMS AT MITCHELL
The Maine Republican Party slammed Mitchell last week after Forbes magazine ranked Maine 50th in the country for business and careers.
“Mitchell and her Democrat friends have literally destroyed our economy,” said GOP Chairman Charlie Webster in a statement.
Forbes has its rankings online at www.forbes.com.
DEMS SLAM LEPAGE ON NUKES
The Brunswick Democratic Town Committee dug deep into the archives to come up with a February radio clip in which LePage said his vision for Maine included a nuclear power plant in Brunswick.
The committee has created a website to show its displeasure, which can be found at http://lepagewantsanukein brunswick.com.
“Democrats strongly oppose placing a power plant in Brunswick,” Greg Howard, chairman of the group, said in a statement.
REMEMBER THE CONSTITUTION
The Maine Patriots will host a “We the People” event from 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 30 at Capitol Park in Augusta.
The tea party group says there won’t be any candidates — or their long-winded speeches — at the event, which will be partly to remind elected officials of the importance of the U.S. Constitution, according to a news release.
Those who attend are advised to bring seating, but to “leave their signs at home.”
PLANNED PARENTHOOD PLAUDITS
While announcing its support for Mitchell for governor and U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, for Congress, Planned Parenthood of Northern New England says it will air television commercials and do some direct mailing.
It also endorsed six Democrats running for state Senate, a sure sign that there are some tough races out there.
“We need to ensure that our state Legislature remains pro-choice and willing to fight for women’s health and reproductive rights,” the group wrote.
MORE MUD IN THE FORECAST
Dan Demeritt, press secretary for LePage, sent out a “top 10” style list last week at 4 a.m. (he has young children, so we’re guessing it’s not unusual for him to be up at that hour).
Anyway, some highlights from his “Top 10 Next Complaints from the Libby Mitchell Mud Machine” include “Night falls in Waterville. Mayor LePage criticized for lack of transparency” and, in a reference to the Marden’s theme song: “Customer doesn’t buy it when she saw it, Democrats contact Better Business Bureau.”
SUSSMAN’S YOUNGEST PASSENGER?
To a passenger list that includes Pingree and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., add Shelby Lamarre Maignan.
One month after Pingree and Frank flew from Portland to the Virgin Islands aboard the private jet of Pingree’s fiance, S. Donald Sussman, the wealthy hedge-fund manager donated the use of his plane to a Haitian relief effort based in St. Thomas.
Sussman’s plane transported Shelby, then 13 months old, back to his parents in St. Thomas a week after the earthquake struck. His mother had left her son in the care of relatives, including his grandmother, according to a story in the St. Thomas Source newspaper (“V.I. Infant Returned From Haiti to Joyous Parents”).
It was the first of three donated round-trip flights shuttling medical personnel and emergency supplies and equipment aboard Sussman’s plane between Jan. 19 and Feb. 14.
And who provided the tip about Sussman’s generosity? The Maine Republican Party, which had noticed the names of the jet’s two pilots as appearing on a list of out-of-state donors to Pingree’s campaign.
$500 GRANT TO TEA PARTY GROUP
A small portion of a recent anonymous $1 million donation to the national Tea Party Patriots is going to a group in southern Maine.
The York County Constitutionalists qualified for a grant of $500, to be used “to help us in outreach such as printing fliers, brochures, informational articles, group banner, purchase of Constitutions and an ad in the Sentinel, a weekly paper mailed to all houses in 16 York County towns,” according to Jane Clark, one of the group’s leaders.
MaineToday Media State House Writer Susan Cover can be contacted at 620-7015 or at:
scover@centralmaine.com
— Staff Writer Glenn Jordan, Morning Sentinel Staff Writer Scott Monroe and MaineToday Media State House Writer Rebekah Metzler contributed to this column.
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