Dark horse LePage storms Republican field to take primary

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Waterville Mayor Paul LePage won the Republican Party’s nomination for governor by a convincing margin Tuesday.

LePage, as of 12:50 a.m. Wednesday, was leading 74 percent of precincts with a 37 percent share of the vote in the seven-way GOP primary election. The lead executive of Maine’s Marden’s Surplus and Salvage Stores was reported to be ahead of challengers Les Otten, Peter Mills, Steve Abbott, Bill Beardsley, Bruce Poliquin and Matt Jacobson, respectively.

Otten finished a distant second with 17 percent of the vote after a campaign in which he spent well over $2 million of his own money.

LePage started off the race strong, winning six of the first nine Republican votes in tiny Bancroft, a town in Aroostook County that was the first to report. He didn’t look back, winning the historic Democratic stronghold of Portland by more than 300 votes over Abbott.

“When we saw the Portland numbers, we knew the jig was up,” said Marc Pittman, Mills’ campaign manager.

“It’s Paul’s message. I think that people in Maine are ready for a fiscal and social conservative. I think the people of Maine are tired and fed up with the debt that the state is in, the way that the state is heading, the over-taxation, the burden of regulation, and simply ready for a change,” John Morris, LePage’s campaign manager, said by telephone late Tuesday.

Poliquin, in a telephone interview, called LePage “a good man” who deserves the support of all Republican candidates.

“Good for him. He deserves it,” Poliquin said. “We need someone who is fiscally conservative and he certainly is.”

Felicia Knight, Abbott’s campaign manager, said LePage is a “compelling” candidate who has “successfully tapped into” the national Tea Party movement. LePage appeared at several Tea Party events over the course of the campaign.

Pittman said the election’s result was “historic” and Mills knew early that the election was LePage’s. At approximately 11 p.m., Morris said Mills called to concede. Pittman, though, expressed concern about the tea party’s potential involvement with the Maine Republican Party, saying he more respected “moderate dialogue” and “working across the aisle.”

“I don’t think the Maine GOP understands how many Republicans were alienated by this,” Pittman said. “I’m just puzzled.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 9th, 2010, 1:02 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.