DAMARISCOTTA, Maine — Jim Stewart of Casco, who remembers standing in a ballot box in 2004 wrestling with whether to vote for John Kerry or George W. Bush for president, must be among the tiniest subset of a subset of the Maine electorate: He can’t decide between Republican Paul LePage and Democrat Mike Michaud for governor.
There is little political common ground between Republicans and Democrats in Maine, especially when it comes to the gubernatorial race, but Stewart considers himself someone for whom party labels don’t matter. He’s hoping to hear something later this week that convinces him to vote for LePage or Michaud when the two appear together on stage — along with independent Eliot Cutler — for this year’s first televised gubernatorial debate.
“I’m looking forward to the debates,” Stewart, a longtime unenrolled voter, said. “I want to hear what they have to say.”
The first televised debate is scheduled for Wednesday evening. Two more are scheduled for next week, including an Oct. 20 event hosted by CBS 13 and the Bangor Daily News.
Stewart was among thousands of visitors cramming the streets of Damariscotta on Monday to enjoy the annual Damariscotta Pumpkinfest and Regatta. A couple of hours of talking politics on Main Street showed that Maine voters are more than just faceless poll data and campaigns’ focus groups. Listening to voters on the street also shows that most people have firm reasons behind their preferences.
Leaning against a table outside Renys, Stewart was decidedly ho-hum about the fact that Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, who is running for re-election, was due to roll through town at any moment. He said he has seen Collins on television constantly, though he doesn’t let advertising sway his vote because he assumes the message in each political ad is paid for by special interest groups from outside Maine. With independent expenditures on track to blow well past the $10 million mark this year, he’s right.
“The biggest flaw in our system is the amount of money spent to put people in office,” Stewart said. “If I’m a governor or a U.S. senator and people have spent $15 million to get me elected, you know those people are going to come knocking on my door.”
All indications are that Collins is headed for re-election, but LePage’s fate is less certain. If the current shape of the race holds through the morning of Nov. 4 with near-equal support for LePage and Michaud, it’s people like Stewart who will decide the outcome. Most of the attention in this election, however, has been on Michaud and Cutler, a former Democrat, who are seen by many as drawing from the same pool of like-minded voters.
Phyllis Buffum of Phippsburg, also at Pumpkinfest, preferred to keep her preference in the governor’s race confidential, but said it wouldn’t be LePage. Asked by the BDN if she plans to vote strategically, she said “yes.”
Without being asked, she and several others said they’re disappointed with the tone of much of the advertising.
“The TV ads make me upset,” she said. “There are too many commercials and most of them are about backstabbing instead of the issues.”
The pumpkin celebration also attracted ardent LePage supporters, such as Kasha and Robert Hussey of Wiscasset, both of whom work at Bath Iron Works. They voted for LePage in 2010 and will again this year.
“We think he’s done a really stellar job,” Kasha Hussey said. “He’s very much in touch with how we feel in terms of the economy.”
That’s despite Michaud’s blue-collar background like the Husseys’ and an endorsement from the labor union to which they belong. The Husseys said Michaud’s Oct. 1 visit to BIW with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka “didn’t go over well” among many of the workers.
“Just because our unions endorse him doesn’t mean we do,” Robert Hussey said.
A woman from Augusta, who wouldn’t identify herself because she works for a nonprofit that receives state funding, was taking pictures of her two young children with enormous and misshapen artist-decorated pumpkins on Main Street. She said she’s a Democrat who switched her vote to Cutler in the 11th hour of the 2010 election, but intends to support Michaud this year no matter what. She said she disagrees with LePage mostly because of his stance on environmental issues, but also because he doesn’t have the demeanor to be the state’s ambassador to the world.
“I think he’s been an embarrassment for the state of Maine and I don’t think he’s a good example for our children,” she said.
Several voters said the issue that matters most to them this year isn’t about putting someone in office. It’s about Question 1, a referendum that would ban the use of hounds, traps or bait for bear hunting. This is the second try for proponents of the measure, who saw their cause defeated by Maine voters in 2004 by a relatively narrow margin of 53 to 47 percent. There has been speculation that Question 1 could bring a number of voters to the polls who might otherwise skip voting altogether.
