Of all the nailbiter-races spread all over the country this election, perhaps the most frustrating one for Democrats of all stripes is the Maine Governor's race where teabagger Paul LePage is in a dead heat with centrist Democrat Mike Michaud, with also-ran Independent Eliot Cutler garnering between 15-20% of the electorate, almost all of them from the Michaud camp. Cutler is also a centrist, closely associated with Senator Angus King (ME-I) but also formerly a staff member of both President Carter's and Senator Muskie's. Everyone agrees that if Cutler were to drop out, Michaud would win. Cutler has been explicit in stating that Maine would be significantly harmed by another LePage term but at this late date he hasn't seen fit to do the right thing and ask his supporters to give their votes to Michaud, the clear leader among the non-idiots in the race. Thus, the supreme frustration of this contest.
About 3 months ago I was at a friend's birthday party where I reconnected with a couple with whom I'd lost contact over the years, a couple of very committed liberals who were very concerned about a similar dynamic playing out in this race, but not exactly. They were worried about a replay of 4 years ago where LePage managed to get a plurality because Cutler and Libby Mitchell were splitting the liberal/centrist vote between them almost equally for much of the runup to the vote. They mentioned that they were thinking of posting a MoveOn petition that would be directed toward the non-LePage voters in Maine, asking them to cast their votes for whomever was ahead in the polls between Cutler and Michaud, come election day. I said that since Cutler at that point was only getting 15% in the polls compared to Michaud's 40+%, that it would be better not to give Cutler equal footing with Michaud at that point, by intimating in the petition that he might gain traction by election day. Much better I said to keep him at bay, as the course of events has proven to be the case.
The other day, just prior to a Portland Press Herald poll had LePage surging to a 10 point lead over Michaud and Cutler still mired at 16%, I sent those friends an email suggesting that a better petition would be one that implores the two Moderates to come together, perhaps in the form of a pact between them whereby Michaud offers Cutler a prominent position in his cabinet and Cutler urges his supporters to vote for Michaud. That to me would be a game-changer, one that engages the imagination of the public and might even deliver a mandate-sized win instead of one that's barely eked-out, or even a loss, if something like that doesn't develop in the next few days.
My friends let me know that they'd already posted their aforementioned petition, so I said I'd go onto MoveOn's website and sign it. However, in the process of looking for their entry I came across another petition that did exactly what I'd suggested might work, a plea for Mike and Eliot to lay down their swords and, in the interests of saving the state from certain disaster, create a formal alliance. The title of the petition is High Stakes in Maine's Race for Governor.
Needless to say, I signed the damn thing. I urge all of you to do the same. Imagine the national press that would result from such a coming together, and imagine the consternation in the wingnut camp as the prospect of one of their heroes going down to smothering defeat becomes reality!
Please go sign the petition!