Paul LePage’s race for a second term as Maine’s governor is currently neck-and-neck less than two weeks out from Election Day, according to a new poll.
Despite a somewhat bumpy tenure in his first term, Public Policy Polling has the Republican incumbent and his Democratic opponent, congressman Mike Michaud, both sit at 40 percent, with independent candidate and lawyer Eliot Cutler at 17 percent.
PPP explains that, although LePage is not terribly popular, he and Michaud remain deadlocked dbecause Cutler is taking votes from the Democrat. More than half of Cutler’s supporters said they would back Michaud as their second choice. In a head-to-head match-up between LePage and Michaud, the latter leads 49 percent to 44 percent. (Neither candidate has a favorability rating over 50 percent.)
Previous polls show the race to be tight, although Michaud has recently taken a slight edge,. LePage had a nailbiter in 2010 as well: That year, Cutler nearly won office, but LePage beat the independent by two points, 38 percent to 36 percent. Democratic nominee Libby Mitchell took 19 percent of the vote.