The person with the most votes

Your mom

You mean gubernatorial

Mills can win if Democrats/the left do the following: vote.

If Mills isn’t your cup of tea or doesn’t fit your idea of a unicorn candidate, she is leaps and bounds better than Lepage.

Don’t expect anyone to do your voting for you: you have to get out a vote. Shaming people into voting your way won’t get Mills elected nor will sitting out an election to prove a point do anything except tilt the ratio towards Lepage.

To my fellow moderates/centrists leaning toward Mills: you have to vote. Don’t let complacency or the comfort of your echo chamber convince you that Mills has this tied up. You have vote!

Maine is by and dad one of the easier states to vote. There is no excuse for not voting.

Whoa whoa slow down there bub. How do we know our guy is gonna have the most votes and it 'aint election fraud?

LePage has a lot less fire than he had last time. Almost wonder if his heart is acting up again.

Honestly, I think he'll lose. He's just not putting the energy into this run. It feels strangely half-hearted. Minimal interaction.

I imagine a large part of him would like to lose and quietly retreat to the warmth of Florida.

Did someone force him to do this? Because it never felt like his idea to return.

Someone choosing not to vote for the lesser of two evils is not to be looked down upon.

I do think we're living in the worst timeline but LePage seems like he isn't trying. Maybe they have internal polling telling them that he's definitely going to lose or something, it's strange. Maybe he realized that being retired is better than working?

Whatever happens, we should continue to pressure legislators to amend the State Constitution to allow RCV on ALL Maine elections. The system works, it's great. We need to prevent our state from being run by complete asshats like Bruce Poliquin.

Yes just sit elections out you'll show em. This lesser of two evils nonsense is redundant and reveals how little you think you have to lose.

I understand why you feel that way, and your point is well taken.

Yeah that's the way it seemed to me too. And his weird distancing from Trump and abortion as if he himself didn't say he was "Trump before Trump". What a strange decision to run in the first place.

Maybe he just saw the chance to be associated with a PAC, get donations to spend how the PAC sees fit (wink wink), and then when he loses...oh well. But the PAC keeps the money they did or didn't spend because it's not the candidate's personal campaign fund (wink wink)

I'm still convinced Trump ran in 2016 to make money and wasn't serious about winning. Just like I don't think he's that serious about running again, but is happy to send out fundraising emails all the time

(And I'm not saying Trump is a unique politician in this regard, just more brazen)

I've said it repeatedly: I think LePage will win by a cunt hair.

1. I straight up do not trust state-level polling. It's consistently really wrong; look at the margins of Collins' wins against what she was polled at. Sometimes double-digit differences.

2. The environment is not at all favorable to Democrat incumbents.

I think if he loses, it will be because of the Abortion pushback. That's the wildcard nationwide at the moment, and frankly I don't believe that the average voter has the memory span to stay that mad about something to make a difference.

I guess we'll see.

That's true. Every time I look at the polls I remember how far ahead they had Gideon and a number of others in 2020. If he wins, I'm sure those cries of a "rigged" election will magically disappear into thin air.

I think that held true 6 years ago. I think the difference now is so stark, and the right's actions (and the effects) so vile that yeah, I kinda do look down on you for that.

I've set aside my absolute disgust for the democratic party for now, because throwing women and minorities into a christian nationalist meat grinder is the alternative.

I suspect anyone with an R is going to be in a bad way, the Penguin even more so as we already dealt with his shit for 8 years and no one who wasn't going to vote for him anyway believes a single thing he says at this point. I think that I am like a lot of Mainers and am anti-political and generally unimpressed with anyone we get to vote for. However, I will vote dem simply because of harm reduction.

I mean right off the top of my head the hate on LGBQT and the rebirth of blood libel slander. The hating for immigrants and using them as political props. They got rid of ROE, something I didn't think would ever fucking happen as it had been a right to body autonomy for half a century and using that same SCOTUS to make war on unions. Now they are openly talking about aiming their sights at social security and medicare and I believe that they would absolutely fuck over all those elderly folks who need that shit and paid into it their whole lives. I am really at the point where I think anyone voting for them has to be either dumb as a fucking stump or just full of fucking hate and kind of evil.

And don't get me started on this prosperity gospel bullshit Christianity they push, while not a devout Christian or anything having been raise that way as child it turns my stomach to see politicians and leaders do the exact opposite of what Christ taught get supported because they drag around a bible and a cross.

Collins managed to get a significant number of split ticket voters. I don’t see LePage doing that.

Everything you listed is exactly why I'm voting too. I can't imagine what will happen if they have more power. The fact that a lot of these issues are underestimated or ignored completely in the media is also pretty frightening. All of this is happening under our noses and the ones sounding the alarm are still being painted as hysterical. It shows how much of this hatred has been steadily normalized over time.

That's true, but also not relevant to what I said.

She polled much much lower than her actual results. That holds true for a lot of republicans in many states. I think polling firms have yet to come to grips with the fact that there is a growing Shy Tory effect happening, and reweight their models accordingly.

If yard signs voted, the R ticket will sweep it all. It’s depressing.

To be fair, someone has been going around and just putting those everywhere. I've come home a half-dozen times to find that I magically became a LePage household while out.

They keep assuming that anything less than cultlike worship means people aren't going to vote against their guy.

even here in blue Camden there are a shitload of LePage signs (alongside all the local R candidates). I am crossing my fingers it's simply the Republican urge to advertise their team.
as an aside, a Republican woman running for our state rep sent out mailers about something something schools serving parents which was obviously code for banning books, etc. Thing is, there has been zero drama at any of our schools. We love our schools. People move here for the schools. This woman is fabricating problems that don't exist.

🤣😂

One silver lining here is that aggregate sites like FiveThirtyEight still gave Collins a 41% chance of winning:

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2020-election-forecast/senate/maine/

I assume this is likely because Collins has cross-party support due to the image of bipartisanship.

They give LePage 7-8% depending on the day you look despite there being no new polls:

https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2022-election-forecast/governor/maine/

LePage is LePage and he has a support ceiling. He will win if Democrats don't have a strong turnout. Republicans will surely have a strong turnout.

The manufactured outrage about things that aren't even happening is scary. I've seen enough of these people raving at school board meetings. I'm glad it isn't happening here .

I disagree. You have a choice between two viable (likely to have a good chance of success) candidates. You may not like either, but one of those choices may have positive or negative benefits more than the other. Both short term and long term.

At the end of the day your vote is YOUR vote. Just vote

You say that but the few I still talk to said they belive it is all rigged and are not going to bother.

This is how we got Trump.

Most of the Ds have the common sense to not idolize or associate your entire persona around politicians

Preach.

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Welcome to the political climate of today, bud. "Lesser of two evils" voting is the norm now. Take it or leave it.

Yard signs don't mean anything. If anything, I feel most dems don't bother with them because they're a waste of resources. That money could be better spent elsewhere. I mean, there are friggin' Trump signs still out from 2020. I think it speaks volumes as to who thinks political signs matter one bit. I mean, has a sign ever swayed your vote?

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The irony of telling people they’re in a cult is dumbfounded. both side are a cult. Being controlled like a puppet

I'm hoping and voting for Lepage if only because I prefer just about any Republican to any Democrat politician.

I understand that. I leave it more often than not. For example, I won't be voting for Governor, but I will be voting for Jared Golden.

This shows a poor understanding of why Trump was elected, and why populist morons will continue to be elected.

I got you. No one gets my vote automatically just because they have the D next to their name. I’m sitting this election out as well as I simply don’t like any of their values/legislation. I get to vote for Mills and Golden… none of which are striking any good vibes for me.

One less D vote she/he and everyone else running on the platform will have. If this is how we got Trump then the Ds have learned nothing in 6 years. This shouldn’t matter in the end to them anyways as I really feel like the democrats are a party for families and immigrants and I’m not either of those.

The abortion ruling really shaped my view a little bit too and with mills saying she will do nothing to change existing law there went my last reason to vote for her.

Lol, he’s leaving it…

So you care only about the letter next to their name not their platform? Lol, sounds about right for that party.

Haha, you’d have to vote for the likes of some people like Herschel Walker!!

😂 this is what everyone thought about all the trump signs too. Those signs are put up in cities and towns with traffic. They aren’t put into random residential suburban homes yards that frequently a dozen times!

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Curious as to why you think Mills is "evil."

Note: moved comment for better clarity.

Really? Democrats do the same don't even try to play otherwise you were the ones that had the slogan vote blue no matter who.

Not me. Democrats. You don’t even know how I vote/who I vote for or what I do with my vote. YOU on the other hand have said this is how you vote.

Also, if democrats thought this and lived by it how exactly did Susan Collins get re-elected??

You said "sounds about right for that party." That leaves only likely 3 possibilities first is you don't vote, second is you're a Democrat that votes Democrat, the third is you're registered as independent but vote democrat more often than not. Also it doesn't mean anything if there's some exceptions. That's like trying to use the intersex argument for why a man can supposedly be a woman.

Yup. Sounds about right for that party! There’s also more options than that lol. Do you think just because I have a conflicting view of yours I can’t be Republican? That sounds about right for that party too!

Ah thank you enlightened centrist

Keep adding proof to the pudding :)

I'm done there's no point in talking to a troll like you.

Not really 😂

You just labeled/categorized me. Which was an incorrect assumption. Stop being a hypocrite.

A troll= someone who doesn't agree with you

You accused me of being in a cult because I don’t worship trump or any other politician . That’s categorizing and you’re not proving a point. You’re just taking offense and making bizarre accusations. A hit dog hollers . I’m not sure why you think you made a point 😂

A troll=someone who doesn't appear to be in any way talking sincerely but rather just because they want conflict or to rile people up that is them no doubt

Telling people they’re “puppets” for voting is not comparable to cult worship of politicians to the point that you never think they’re wrong , wear their shirts and hats everywhere, put up flags with their name in your yard and bumper stickers on your car and attack the u.s capitol carrying flags with his name on it because he lost an election. Sorry you can’t spot the difference and feel the need to shout “BOTHESIDES” into the void

I said. Both political parties are a cult. Never specified you:) you cannot tell people. They’re in a cult. When both sides are beyond corrupt and you’re supporting one pointing fingers at the others.

You said it was ironic which was clearly an implication that everyone is somehow in a cult for voting. That’s not a bold and enlightening statement lol

Do you keep editing your post. ? You good ?

No, where does it say I edited my post….?

You changed that comment three times.

Responding in three separate comments isn’t “editing” . It doesn’t say that anywhere