Paul LePage won extremely handily in a 7 way race in Maine for the Republican Gov. nomination.
No poll had LePage in 1st place or breaking 15%. The most recent poll had him at 10%. Huge numbers of undecided.
He ended up winning with 38% (if numbers hold) to 17% for the 2nd place finisher (Otten).
Very interesting results. LePage was the tea party candidate, and it is believed that grass roots, door to door, face to face campaigning really made the difference.
Some small towns gave 65-70% to LePage, areas that aren’t even near his hometown. These are quite surprising results. This race hasn’t been watched, but if the media interested in writing a “tea party” story without making it a Palin story, or a woman story, I’d look closely at LePage.
He was outspent by at least 3 other candidates, was way down in the polls (but there were huge numbers of undecideds), did little TV, but was able to win a massive victory.
Also in Maine, there’s a heavily Tea Party influenced new GOP platform. The Knox County Republicans wrote that platform and it was enthusiastically received. LePage
did very well in Knox County - winning 53% (as of now) of the vote there. Knox County went stronger for LePage than LePage’s home county of Kennebec.
Tea party v. liberal for Maine gubernatorial race
http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20100609-NEWS-6090378
Thanks for the link.
I voted LePage, in the general he is up against a life long establishment female Democrat who was endorsed by BillJeff Clinton.
It should be an interesting race. Hope he can pull it off.
Very nice.