Gov. Paul LePage (R), with a 52 percent disapproval rating in a state that voted twice for Barack Obama, could be a textbook case of an incumbent likely to lose but for the fact that he is again running in a three-man race.
Famously outspoken, LePage has been running about even with US Rep. Michael Michaud, a fiscally conservative Democrat. But independent candidate Eliot Cutler could take enough votes away from the Democrat to tip the race to LePage. RealClearPolitics shows Cutler running third, at 13 percent, but he has been slipping in recent polls.
LePage was elected governor in 2010 after Cutler, again running as an independent, peeled votes away from the Democratic nominee. If Cutler’s numbers hold, the governor could win his bid for reelection the same way in 2014.
