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LePage: 20–30% 30–40% 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90% Cutler: 30–40% 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% >90% Mitchell: 30–40% 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% Tie: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Elections in Maine |
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The 2010 Maine gubernatorial election took place on November 2, 2010, to elect the governor of Maine. Incumbent Democratic governor John Baldacci was term-limited and could not seek re-election to a third consecutive term. Primary elections took place on June 8, 2010. The candidates who appeared on the November ballot were (in alphabetical order by last name): Eliot Cutler (Independent), Paul LePage (Republican), Libby Mitchell (Democratic), Shawn Moody (Independent), and Kevin Scott (Independent). [1]
With 94% of precincts reporting on the day after the election, the Bangor Daily News declared LePage the winner, carrying 38.1% of the votes. [2] Cutler was in second place with 36.7% of the votes (less than 7,500 votes behind LePage), while Mitchell was a distant third with 19%. [2] Moody and Scott had 5% and 1%, respectively. [2] Two days after the election, with 99% of precincts reporting, LePage's lead over Cutler had widened to more than 10,000 votes. [3] This election was the first since 1990 that Maine elected a Republican governor.
Poll source | Dates administered | Mitchell | Rowe | Scarcelli | McGowan | Undecided |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Pan Atlantic SMS Group [23] | May 21–29, 2010 | 13.3% | 11.7% | 7.0% | 6.3% | 61.7% |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Elizabeth "Libby" Mitchell | 42,328 | 34.4 | |
Democratic | G. Steven Rowe | 27,923 | 22.7 | |
Democratic | Rosa Scarcelli | 26,444 | 21.5 | |
Democratic | Patrick K. McGowan | 24,392 | 19.8 | |
Democratic | John Richardson | 1,604 | 1.3 | |
Democratic | Write-in | 236 | 0.3 | |
Total votes | 122,927 | 100 |
At 11:32 p.m. EDT, WCSH declared Libby Mitchell the winner of the Democratic primary. [25]
Poll source | Dates administered | Otten | LePage | Mills | Abbott | Beardsley | Poliquin | Jacobson | Undecided |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MECPO [46] [47] | May 22-June 2, 2010 | 17.0% | 10.7% | 22.1% | 13.9% | 5.9% | 4.9% | 1.4% | 24.0% |
Pan Atlantic SMS Group [23] | May 21–29, 2010 | 17.0% | 10.3% | 8.4% | 8.3% | 3.6% | 3.3% | 2.0% | 47.0% |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Paul LePage | 49,126 | 37.4 | |
Republican | Les Otten | 22,945 | 17.4 | |
Republican | Peter Mills | 19,271 | 14.7 | |
Republican | Steve Abbott | 17,209 | 13.1 | |
Republican | William "Bill" Beardsley | 12,061 | 9.2 | |
Republican | Bruce Poliquin | 6,471 | 4.9 | |
Republican | Matt Jacobson | 4,324 | 3.3 | |
Total votes | 131,407 | 100 |
At 11:19 p.m. EDT, WCSH declared Paul LePage the winner of the GOP primary. [48]
The Maine Green Independent Party did not have a gubernatorial candidate on the ballot, as no candidate collected required number of signatures. [67]
Source | Ranking | As of |
---|---|---|
Cook Political Report [71] | Tossup | October 14, 2010 |
Rothenberg [72] | Tilt R (flip) | October 28, 2010 |
RealClearPolitics [73] | Likely R (flip) | November 1, 2010 |
Sabato's Crystal Ball [74] | Lean R (flip) | October 28, 2010 |
CQ Politics [75] | Lean D | October 28, 2010 |
Poll source | Date(s) administered | Sample size | Margin of error | Paul LePage (R) | Libby Mitchell (D) | Eliot Cutler (I) | Shawn Moody (I) | Kevin Scott (I) | Undecided |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MPRC/Down East Magazine [76] | October 28–30, 2010 | 546 | ± 4.19% | 39% | 24% | 29% | 4% | 1% | 2% |
Critical Insights/MaineToday Media [77] | October 27–28, 2010 | 621 | ± 4% | 40% | 21% | 21% | 4% | 1% | 11% |
Pan Atlantic SMS [78] | October 25–28, 2010 | 400 | ± 4.9% | 38.6% | 21.8% | 30.6% | 2.8% | 1.1% | 7.3% |
Public Policy Polling [79] | October 26–28, 2010 | 1,812 | ± 2.3% | 40% | 24% | 28% | 4% | 1% | 2% |
Rasmussen Reports [80] | October 26, 2010 | 500 | ± 4.5% | 40% | 26% | 26% | - | - | 5% |
Critical Insights [81] | October 13–17, 2010 | 600 | ± 4% | 32% | 20% | 19% | 5% | 1% | 21% |
Pan Atlantic SMS [82] | October 11–15, 2010 | 501 | ± 4.4% | 32.9% | 28.0% | 14.0% | 4.6% | 0.4% | 20.2% |
Rasmussen Reports [80] | October 12, 2010 | 500 | ± 4.5% | 35% | 32% | 21% | * | * | 6% |
Critical Insights/MaineToday Media [83] | October 10–11, 2010 | 605 | ± 4% | 32% | 26% | 11% | 5 | 1 | 26% |
Pine Tree Politics/Maine Center for Public Opinion [84] | October 4–7, 2010 | 679 | ± 3.76% | 29.6% | 28.7% | 11.1% | 4.9% | 1.6% | 24.1% |
Critical Insights/MaineToday Media [85] | September 27, 2010 | 405 | ± 4.9% | 29% | 30% | 9% | 5% | 0% | 26% |
Rasmussen Reports [86] | September 20, 2010 | 500 | ± 4.5% | 45% | 27% | 14% | * | * | 10% |
Critical Insights/MaineToday Media [87] | September 13, 2010 | 603 | ± 4% | 38% | 25% | 11% | 4% | 1% | 21% |
Public Policy Polling [88] | September 2–6, 2010 | 1,468 | ± 2.6% | 43% | 29% | 11% | 5% | 1% | 12% |
Rasmussen Reports [89] | August 12, 2010 | 500 | ± 4.5% | 38% | 30% | 16% | * | * | 11% |
Rasmussen Reports [90] | July 14, 2010 | 500 | ± 4.5% | 39% | 31% | 15% | * | * | 12% |
Rasmussen Reports [91] | June 10, 2010 | 500 | ± 4.5% | 43% | 36% | 7% | * | * | 14% |
* Shawn Moody and Kevin Scott, two Independent candidates who appeared on the ballot, were not offered as choices in the Rasmussen polls. [92]
Despite polling in the low teens as late as mid-October, Cutler surged in the final weeks of the campaign to surpass Mitchell and finish second. LePage won with only 37.6% of the vote, the second-lowest percentage for any winning Maine gubernatorial candidate behind independent Angus King's 35.7% in 1994. LePage was considered to have benefitted from vote splitting between the Democrat Mitchell and the Democrat-turned-independent Cutler. [93] Mitchell would ultimately win just 18.8% of the vote, carrying only Kittery in the extreme south of the state, the Penobscot Indian Island Reservation, and a handful of staunchly Democratic municipalities in northern Aroostook County near the Canadian border. Cutler carried many other traditionally Democratic areas of the state, such as the Greater Portland area and Mount Desert Island. Mitchell's performance was the worst for any Democratic gubernatorial candidate since 1998, when Democrat Thomas J. Connolly would win just 12% of the vote in the midst of King's 16-county landslide re-election.
In addition, a number of municipalities and voting precincts finished as exact ties in official results: the municipalities of Bancroft, Dallas Plantation, Gilead, Madrid, Orient, Vanceboro, and Wesley, finished as exact ties between LePage and Cutler, while a precinct for voters in unincorporated eastern Aroostook County finished as a tie between Cutler and fellow independent Shawn Moody, with each receiving one vote.
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Paul LePage | 218,065 | 37.6% | +7.39% | |
Independent | Eliot Cutler | 208,270 | 35.9% | — | |
Democratic | Libby Mitchell | 109,387 | 18.8% | −19.31% | |
Independent | Shawn Moody | 28,756 | 5.0% | — | |
Independent | Kevin Scott | 5,664 | 1.0% | ||
Majority | 9,795 | 1.7% | −6.2 | ||
Turnout | 580,538 | +29,673 | |||
Republican gain from Democratic | Swing |
Paul LePage and Eliot Cutler would face off again in 2014, though Cutler would ultimately garner just 8% of the vote in that election. LePage would win re-election that year with over 48% of the vote, his closest opponent being Democrat Mike Michaud, who won 43% of the vote. Cutler would be arrested for possession of child pornography in 2022, resulting in him serving seven months in jail and being required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. [95] [96]
Shawn Moody, who finished the 2010 election with 5% of the vote as an independent, would become a Republican in 2017. He was the GOP nominee for governor in 2018, an election he would lose to Democrat Janet Mills. [97]
Former state Conservation Commissioner Patrick McGowan formally announced his candidacy today, making him the seventh Democrat seeking his party's nomination in June.
Democrat John Richardson pulled out in April after the ethics commission found problems with his application for Clean Election funds. But it was too late for the ballots, which had already gone to the printers.
A former state representative who was jailed two years ago for forging signatures on petitions for state Clean Election funds has filed papers to run for governor. Peter Truman of Old Orchard Beach, also known as Peter Throumoulos, plans to run as a Democrat.
Beverly Cooper-Pete of Portland also filed Tuesday as an unenrolled candidate.
The candidates who attended were Democrat Libby Mitchell and independent Shawn Moody, along with write-in candidates Beverly Cooper-Pete and Ed Braley ...
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