AUGUSTA, Maine — The first public poll conducted on Maine’s now-wide-open U.S. Senate race showed independent Angus King with an edge in a hypothetical three-way matchup against Democrat Chellie Pingree and Republican Charlie Summers.
A Public Policy Polling survey of 1,256 Maine voters conducted over the weekend also showed King — who announced Monday that he’s officially in the race — as the most popular of any of the potential candidates. The two-term governor’s favorability rating was 62 percent compared with an unfavorability rating of 24 percent.
Pingree and Summers both had lower favorables and higher unfavorables than King, but it’s important to stress that, while they are the front-runners, neither Pingree nor Summers are their party’s nominee.
It’s also worth noting that the PPP survey skewed slightly Democratic. Of those polled, 43 percent identified themselves as Democrats, 34 percent as Republicans and 23 percent as unenrolled. The poll also had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percent.
There has been enormous interest in the U.S. Senate race in Maine since Olympia Snowe announced she would not seek a fourth term. The flurry of activity in the days that followed prompted PPP to conduct its poll.
Among the three-dozen questions asked, perhaps the most intriguing was: “If the candidates for U.S. Senate this fall were Republican Charlie Summers, Democrat Chellie Pingree, and independent Angus King, who would you vote for?”
King received 36 percent support, followed by Pingree with 31 percent and Summers with 28 percent. In that scenario, King was supported by 53 percent of independents, 35 percent of Democrats, and 25 percent of Republicans.
Those who supported King in the poll also preferred that if he is elected, he caucus with the Senate Democrats. In an interview Tuesday, he said it is much too early to divulge which party he’d caucus with.
“Angus King and Chellie Pingree look like the early favorites in Maine,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “King will have a hard time holding onto his early Democratic support without a pledge to caucus with the party if he’s elected to the Senate.”
Pingree had the most support among Democrats, with 52 percent, followed by former Gov. John Baldacci at 28 percent and former Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap at 11 percent. Baldacci had the highest unfavorability rating (52 percent) of any potential candidate polled.
Some have speculated that King’s entrance into the Senate race might prompt Pingree to stay put in the 1st District, where she likely would be reelected. Pingree, as of Tuesday, had not made up her mind.
On the Republican side, PPP concluded that the field of candidates was weak based on low name-recognition.
Among those polled, Peter Cianchette received the most support with 21 percent, but he isn’t even running.
Summers, the current secretary of state and a 2008 U.S. House candidate, was second at 18 percent, followed by Scott D’Amboise (10 percent), former Maine Senate President Rick Bennett (9 percent) and state Treasurer Bruce Poliquin (8 percent).
Attorney General William Schneider, who some feel could be the GOP front-runner, got only 1 percent support. Assistant Senate Majority Leader Debra Plowman of Hampden, who is gathering signatures to run for the Senate, received 4 percent support.
Poliquin, the former gubernatorial candidate who has turned the treasurer’s office into a high-profile position, had decent name-recognition compared to other GOP candidates but he also had the highest unfavorability rating (40 percent).
If King were not in the race, Pingree also would lead head-to-head matchups against any of the Republican hopefuls by an average of 16 points, the poll found. Baldacci also leads over GOP hopefuls, but only by an average of eight points.
Party candidates have until March 15 to gather 2,000 signatures in order to officially get into the Senate race. Independent candidates have until June but must submit 4,000 signatures.
Very early on with candidates not having their signatures in yet. Best known GOP candidates also have the highest unfavorables.
The best known Republican quit because she was tired of the Neo- Know Nothings calling her a RINO.
Do not pass Go.
Do not collect $200.
In the “go to which you refer it is more like $200,000.
King will walk away with it.
No difference among them when it comes to being pro-life and pro-traditional family, except for Scott D’Amboise. There is no doubt that Angus King would caucus with the Democrats, just as Joe Lieberman does. “Independent” means only that “I can not win as a D, but can fool people into thinking I am truly looking out for them.”
So the 59 percent of people who voted to reelect him in 1998 were all fooled?
“Republican” seems to mean “people who can only win when more than two people are running”.
AK only received 35%of the vote when he won in 1994.
Oh please give me a break Angus ran against 4 lower tier candidates. He ran against
Tom Connolly (D) a Portland area Defense Lawyer, Pat Lamarche (Green) who is more known for many years as her being the Augusta/Waterville Country Radio Station (WEBB 98.5 fm) personality Genny Judge, Jim Longley Jr (R) a 1 term 1st District Congressman and Former Gov. Jim Longley’s son , Bill Clarke (Taxpayers Party). Not 4 household names to most folks. If he ran against household names he would have lost and lost badly. He is not popular to most folks only Liberals.
The same is happening again.
But..but..don’t you liberals always talk about how much you LOVE how the Europeans do it with Parliamentary multi-party systems? Guess not so much now when votes aren’t just between two parties and yours loses eh?
“pro-traditional family” ?
What does that mean ?
They mean like Ozzie & Harriet, or June and Ward Cleaver. Actually that family was a post depression/WWII invention.
We need an election run off law.
Regardless of Gov. King’s qualifications to be Senator, or not… as you might view it….
this illustrates how he could represent all Mainers
without winning the majority of the votes cast in anything.
Throw in a right wing TEA independent, a Green Party candidate , and a Libertarian,
then, in theory, the winner could be elected with less than 2 out of every ten votes cast.
Yes, indeed. In many mayoral elections, if no candidate gets 50% of the vote, the top two candidates then compete in a runoff election. What is the mechanism for getting this done for gubernatorial and congressional elections? A bill in the state legislature? A citizen referendum? I’m asking because I don’t know.
You need a change in the state’s Constitution.
Right is right, should someone with only 1 of 3 votes represent us all ?
Democracy is majority rule, not a 34% plurality rule.
That is like the Nazis, isn’t it ?
Exactly my point.
Runoff Elections – Who Has Them, Who Doesn’twww.instantrunoffvoting.us/runoffelections.html
qualifications to be a Senator is simple… Do you have large enough pocket or sack to hold Large bribes oh wait I mean donations.
Well, in that case an independent is at a disadvantage, but I was talking about how we need run off elections so that minority fools do gain positions of power.
Imagine how foolish that would have sounded before before Gov. LePage.
I know that.
Minority fools like
Jim Longley?
Joe Brennan?
John McKernan?
Angus himself?
John Baldacci?
All won with less than 50% of the vote on their first try. We have not had a governor that had a 51% majority since Ken Curtis…. How many of you remember him?
Cause you have a problem with democracy?
This is NOT a democracy…. never has been.
Although I may not agree with D’Amboise on some issues, the man ran for 2 years, his poll numbers aren’t bad, his supporters are out getting his signatures and he did the
hard work to defeat Senator Snowe – the primary came early, that’s all.
If these 5 GOP candidates wanted to be US Senator, then they should have
stepped up and entered the race in 2011 like any other primary
challenger. Again, the Maine GOP is proving itself to be a disgrace.
I say to all Mainers who are tired of this type of behaviour, win or
lose, support D’Amboise and send a real loud message to Charlie Webster
and the Maine GOP that they need to stop acting like keystone cops and
rally behind the one candidate who played by the rules and didn’t come
in at the last minute as a Carpetbagger.
Like any GOTea Party sort can can win anything but a very small caucus.
TEA or GOP ?
I bet Chellie Pingree is having some reservations now…I predict she’ll stay in her safe House seat that Donald bought her and let Mr. Baldacci take a tumble.
The name calling does nothing to elevate the discussion, and as Rush has found out, has really gone out of fashion, time to move on to substantive comments.
I fixed it. I love Rush, especially Geddy Lee.
Dam, it worked.
Good on ya.
Let’s keep it up until Nov.
So says the folks that are the first out of the box with nasty comments about LePage etc..
I hope not I want her to run.. (-:
Oh come on, the thought of Pingree staying in Congress gives me hives. The thought of her losing her seat and this Senate race would keep me happy for months.
What a joke!
King is the gov who left office with the biggest deficit you ever saw.
Is this what we need in Washington?
Duh!
Deficit? Only the federal government is allowed to run a deficit. Are you making this up?
You rather call it debt? OK — but it’s still a deficit.
What is a $1.5 billion dollar shortfall when Baldacci took office in 2003 that Angus left for Baldo. He went through what money Maine had in the rainy day fund, any surplus that Maine had. It was used on things like Laptops, DHHS expansion, numerous stuides and commissions including for Wind Power , Casinos in Maine, expanding the Lottery (for someone who hates Casinos Gambling). The guy is a loser he hasn’t had a real job in his life all of the money he has made is through Government jobs , Governor , and Goverment subsidies Wind Power etc..
LOWER TAXES end deficits ?
Give us a break, you have record, now,
They oversampled Dems by that much and call this poll fair? Please.
What a shame really, that former Governor King can’t see himself as a democrat. Everyone knows he is, and if he ran as a democrat he would still be the frontrunner. The “diguise” of independent is not helpful to anyone except King, he should do what is right and declare as a democrat. The great partisan debate over the future of the country is a worthy debate, a positive for democracy, Kings “independence ducks the issue.
What a shame really, that Senator Snowe can’t see herself as a Republican, anymore. Everyone knows she is, but if she ran as a Republican she would still be problem to no compromise sillies who call her a RINO.
But I don’t care.
The Republicans’ problems are not mine.
Huh. Similar polls in the late summer of 2010 showed that Cutler or Mitchell would win the Blaine House in November of that year.
Interesting, how polls are sometimes worth about as much as the pixels used to publish them.
Where do you get this? You are completely wrong. At that time Cutler was polling only around 15%, if that, and Mitchell never broke 30%. Cutler surged in the end because progressives and moderates in the end realized Mitchell couldn’t win so threw in with him to try to stop LeBuffoon. Sadly, the majority vote was split allowing it to go to LeBuffoon with his 38%.
It is nice to know that someone on here has a real memory.
A vote for King would be a great chance to unzip one’s trousers and relieve oneself in the faces of the party hacks.
That is nasty.
As long as it’s not some fringe right Republican pig, I’m fine.
You mean like LePage ?
I would vote for this individual when pigs sprout wings and fly.
Scoundrels know no bounds, neither do Kings!
King routinely relieves himself on the faces of the proletariat, and they are so unknowing that they lap it up!
That is nasty.
Pingree is the face?
So you’re saying King is a Republican then?
I see the BDN is “projecting” the winner no only before the polls close but before any Democrat or Republican has filed their papers to enter the race.
Ya gotta love their independence.
They are like the non partisan TEA Party, sort of.
What are you afraid of, it’s long time until Nov.
You must be very young if you think November of Christmas is a long time away.. It is only 8 mortgage payments from today.
Kings will bow to the citizenry. He is a farce!
The “Desecrator of Roxbury” is a wind snake – oil salesman, and scoundrel.
Self-servers should leave the senate to real patriots.
“Self-servers should leave…the senate….” The place would be practically empty, no?
It is true. Angus King is neither a republican nor a democrat’; He is a scoundrel!
Well, okay, but that just makes him like the TEA Party.
The bowels of a scoundrel have more ethics and less aroma than A. King.
This poll is meaningless, maybe less than meaningless if that is possible.
And what is a leech?
An organism that obtains its substenance from the essence of its host.
This also describes A. King!
Angus King is a traitor to Maine!
I hope we don’t elect Angus King. We would just have another Joe Leiberman, a will-o’-the-wisp, responsible for nothing, just a prima donna. There is no ‘I’ in team, but there is one in King.
“We would just have another Joe Leiberman, a will-o’-the-wisp, responsible for nothing, just a prima donna.”
Pat I usually disagree with everything you say, but you have a point. It is just a function of the TEA Party extremists.
Sen. Snowe would be the front runner if she was tired of the no compromise extremists,
wouldn’t she ?
So can you tell me, once you have heard their position, what place do people who will not,
or who can not compromise have at the table, ever ?
Too hard a question for you, Pat ?
Sorry.
Okay, so who is better to replace Sen. Snowe at representing Maine than Gov. King ?
Have you got a name or just a no compromise position ?
lol
Extremism: see all the posts by Disquisbites.
There was no notification nor public hearing permitted for those like my wife and I due to the expedited permitting law. The project owners and Maine DEP have engaged in ex parte communications since well before knowledge of the project was made public. Only in Maine can a Governor (Angus King) use one’s office to enrich one self and it be considered lawful. Unbelievable!!!!!!!
Interesting how the poll had Angus King with the most points, when he only announced that he would run yesterday and the poll was run over the weekend. More liberals who knew he was going to run-did someone let the K(ing)at out of the bag?
I need to know King’s positions on the issues that matter to me. If my vote for an independent is tantamount to a vote for the GOP, I would live to regret it. Calling oneself “Independent” gives the candidate too much leeway to fool voters.
It should read; King Will Lead Maine Further Into Poverty
King & Pingree represent the anti-gun, pro-park, extreme eco-liberal agenda, and have no history of reaching out to small business.
Baldacci holds the lowest exiting poles in Maine’s history, and three of them have generated enough anti-Democrat animosity to create the need for a no BS hardliner conservative like LePage.