Politics
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Democrat Hannah Pingree leads Republican Bobby Charles by 13 points in a new AARP poll, the latest in a string of surveys showing her comfortably ahead in the race for governor.
Pingree, a former Maine House speaker from North Haven, led Charles 52% to 39% in the survey of 982 likely Maine voters taken Sept. 20-22 and released Thursday. Independent state Sen. Rick Bennett of Oxford had 6% with 3% undecided. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
The result fits a steady trend. Every public poll of the race has shown Pingree ahead by 8 to 13 points, and her lead has barely moved in that time. An average compiled by RealClearPolitics, which does not include the AARP poll, had her up by nearly 11 points through Tuesday.
Pingree leads across age groups in AARP’s poll. She led voters 65 and older by 14 points, the same group that favored Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins by 7 in her pivotal race against Democrat Troy Jackson. Pingree also led women 50 and older by 16. In the conservative 2nd Congressional District, she was tied with Charles.
Pingree is also the best-defined candidate. She was viewed favorably by 49% of voters and unfavorably by 38%. Charles was underwater at 33% to 40%, with 13% saying they had never heard of him.
Bennett, a former Maine Republican Party chair and longtime lawmaker, remains largely unknown, with 36% of voters saying they had never heard of him. But he ran second among older swing voters, getting 32% to Pingree’s 41% and Charles’ 13%. Maine’s ranked-choice voting system does not apply to general elections for state office.