With the GOP looking strong in the governor’s race and the national Republican wave, I wondered if either of Maine’s two Democrat-held House seats would be competitive. Today Public Policy Polling tells us they look more competitive than usual, but the Democrats still look healthy enough . . . at least for now:

[In the 1st Congressional District], Chellie Pingree leads challenger Dean Scontras 47-38. Voters in the district are evenly divided on Pingree’s job performance with 40% approving of her and 39% disapproving. She’s benefiting from a pretty weak opponent in Scontras. 65% of voters have no opinion about him and among those who do only 15% see him positively with 20% holding a negative view.
2nd: [Democrat] Mike Michaud leads [Republican] Jason Levesque 45-38. That may be a closer margin than he’s become accustomed to in recent elections but it’s better than a lot of other Democrats are doing in districts where Barack Obama’s all the way down at 41%.
Michaud actually has slightly negative approval numbers with 39% of voters giving him good reviews and 41% disapproving. But like Pingree he’s benefiting from the fact that he has an unknown and not particularly well liked opponent. 68% of voters don’t know enough about Levesque to have formed an opinion and his favorability is a negative 15/17 spread with those who have.

These seats may look like good GOP pickup opportunities in late October. But the problem for Scontras and Levesque is that there are a lot of competitive House races right now. The NRCC, outside groups and GOP donors will have a lot of potential upsets to choose from.