Mills and Moody are tied in race to replace LePage, new poll finds

6 years ago

AUGUSTA, Maine — Republican Shawn Moody and Democrat Janet Mills are in a dead heat in the 2018 race to replace term-limited Maine Gov. Paul LePage, according to a poll from a Massachusetts university signaling a muddled state and no midterm slam dunk for Democrats.

The poll of 500 likely voters from the Suffolk University Political Research Center finds that Moody, a Gorham businessman, and Mills, the Maine attorney general, are tracking toward a close November election that could be influenced by the two trailing independents in the race.

Democrats will find that potential “spoiler” outcome all too familiar after the 2010 and 2014 races won by the Republican governor. LePage won his first election over independent Eliot Cutler, who overtook the Democratic nominee, and then beat U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, who held onto Democrats in 2014 and turned Cutler into an also-ran in that race.

Those elections gave life to a successful 2016 referendum push for ranked-choice voting, but it will only be used in primaries and congressional electionsfor the foreseeable future because of constitutional conflicts. The 2018 governor’s race will be decided by a simple plurality.

To read the rest of “Mills and Moody are tied in race to replace LePage, new poll finds,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Michael Shepherd, please follow this link to the BDN online.