In telling Bernie Sanders to quit, columnist Cynthia Dill (“Sanders is losing fair and square,” May 22) resurrected the myth that if Eliot Cutler had quit the governor’s race in 2014, Mike Michaud would have won.
Sorry, but just like in 2010, it was the weak Democrat who elected Gov. LePage. Every public and internal poll I saw as campaign manager, from the beginning to the end of the 2014 campaign cycle, showed Cutler winning in a head-to-head matchup with LePage.
Even more telling, an NBC exit poll showed LePage beating Michaud even if they had been the only two candidates, and another exit poll, conducted by the Center for Election Science, demonstrated Eliot would have won handily if ranked-choice voting, a much-needed reform, had already been in place.
That reality may not fit Ms. Dill’s partisan narrative, but it’s what cost us the chance to have a smart, visionary governor who was ready to move Maine forward.
Ted O’Meara
2010 and 2014 gubernatorial campaign manager for Eliot Cutler
Yarmouth
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