Many of the winners of Tuesday’s election are obvious — Paul LePage and Bruce Poliquin, for example. Same for the losers — Mike Michaud and Democrats in general. But some winners and losers aren’t so visible, so here’s a partial rundown.
Winners
Democracy: Even after an early season storm knocked out power to thousands, Mainers went to the polls in droves, exceeding turnout expectations for a midterm election. Some polling places ran out of ballots, and others had long lines even after the polls were supposed to close at 8 p.m. Voters in Waldo cast ballots by flashlights and lanterns. LePage and Secretary of State Matt Dunlap deployed a system to help utility workers, deployed far from home to restore power, vote.
Chris Christie: The New Jersey governor came to Maine five times to raise support for LePage, including a last-minute visit on Monday. In addition to Maine, the GOP picked up governorships in Maryland, Illinois and Massachusetts, traditionally Democratic states. These victories burnish the presidential ambitious for Christie, chair of the Republican Governors Association.
Marijuana: Voters in South Portland approved the recreational use of marijuana. A similar measure was defeated in Lewiston, but supporters of legalization are likely to put the question to a statewide referendum in 2016. Nationally, voters in Oregon, Alaska and Washington, D.C., legalized pot use. Colorado and Washington already had.
John Martin: The former long-time speaker of the House and Democratic lawmaker from Eagle Lake will be back in the Legislature in 2015, recapturing his seat in 2014 after a surprise loss in 2012. Martin won 54 percent of the vote in Maine’s northernmost House district. A master parliamentarian, Martin knows the legislative rules better than anyone else. So, although he won’t be in leadership, he’ll be able to call a lot of the shots.
Minimum wage: Efforts to raise the federal minimum wage failed in the Senate this year, but voters in the Republican states of Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota strongly supported minimum wage increases.
Losers
Eliot Cutler: Democrats, not entirely fairly, will remember Cutler as the man who twice got LePage elected. The independent didn’t do himself any favors with a confusing press conference in the final days of the campaign when he told supporters they, of course, could vote for someone else, if “compelled by their fears or their conscience” to do so. Cutler finished the governor’s race with 8 percent of the vote, drawing a smaller percentage than fellow independents Richard Murphy in the 1st Congressional District and Blaine Richardson in the 2nd District, who spent far less money and garnered far less media attention.
If Cutler is interested, LePage wants him to be attorney general. The AG is actually elected by the Legislature — which will comprise a Republican Senate and Democratic House — but LePage was successful in getting Bruce Poliquin elected state treasurer in 2011. This furthers the notion that the GOP boosted Cutler during the campaign to hurt Michaud.
Angus King: Pundits expected a close divide in the U.S. Senate, with Republicans gaining a thin majority. In such a scenario, King could be a valuable ally to Republicans. With an expected 53-45 majority for Republicans, King suddenly wasn’t so important, so he announced Wednesday that he would continue to caucus with the Democrats. There was also talk of an independent caucus to include King. That evaporated when two independents with a shot at victory lost to Republicans on Tuesday. King also managed to endorse both of the losing candidates over the course of Maine’s gubernatorial race, as well as Democrat Emily Cain, who lost her 2nd Congressional District race to Republican Bruce Poliquin.
Barack Obama: With Republicans majorities in the Senate and House, the president’s agenda is a non-starter. Worse, the GOP is now empowered to hold votes on repealing the Affordable Care Act and other Obama signature legislation. The president will be left to use executive orders to forward his agenda, which will further inflame Republicans.
Polling: Nate Silver, one of the country’s best known pollsters, acknowledged that much of the polling this year was wrong. It oversampled Democrats and, hence, polls were skewed in favor of the Democrats, including Mike Michaud, who did not win Tuesday.
Medicaid expansion: Efforts to expand Medicaid in Maine suffered a fatal blow. Not only did pro-expansion Michaud lose, Democrats lost ground in the Legislature, sealing expansion’s fate save for a miraculous change of heart among legislative Republicans and LePage.