Maine news, sports, weather | Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine

GOVERNOR'S RACE

LePage's former foes praise his win

BY ETHAN WILENSKY-LANFORD Staff Writer

BY ETHAN WILENSKY-LANFORD

Staff Writer

One day after Paul LePage earned the Republican nomination for governor, his onetime rivals expressed shock and awe at the scale of his victory.

"I think everybody was surprised by the sheer magnitude of victory that LePage had," said Bill Beardsley, who finished fifth among the seven Republican candidates. "It goes pretty far beyond the Tea Party and other constituencies. That's a pretty strong showing."

LePage won 37.5 percent of the primary vote. Les Otten came in second with 17.4 percent; Sen. Peter Mills, R-Skowhegan, got 14.6 percent; Steve Abbott 12.9 percent; Bill Beardsley 9.4 percent; Bruce Poliquin 5 percent and Matt Jacobson 3.2 percent. There were about 10,000 more Republican voters than Democrats, according to unofficial results Wednesday, despite the fact that there are 56,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans.

Beardsley credited LePage with getting out the vote. He said LePage, the mayor of Waterville, successfully spoke to voters about his experience reducing the size of city government, cutting property taxes and balancing the budget. He said LePage's track record will help him win the general election.

"He gets things done," Beardsley said.

Mills said he knew he had lost after a supporter collected the Portland results at about 9 p.m. Mills said it was clear that LePage brought out tens of thousands of voters that Mills's polling did not anticipate. He said the results showed that voters were angry at politicians, and impressed with LePage's story about escaping the cycle of welfare.

"It's anti-welfare sentiment," Mills said. "There is no other message that all of the voters knew of him. They knew that he was on welfare, got off it, and hates welfare."

On Wednesday, Mills said that he was not ready to support LePage before hearing his plans for the party.

"His big problem right now, fairly obviously, is that he's got to bring the party to unity," Mills said. "...We all ran a hard race. All of us deserve to be a part of the discussion."

Jacobson's spokesman, Martin Sheehan, said Jacobson had congratulated LePage Tuesday night, and was impressed with the scale of his victory.

"You've got to stand up and say 'Wow,'" Sheehan said.

Otten said he thought his own decision to run as a pro-choice candidate against late-term abortion hurt his campaign. He said he was ready to support LePage.

"I told Paul I would be at the unity rally," Otten said.

Traditionally, a Republican unity rally has been held in Cumberland County after the primaries.

LePage's chief of staff, John Morris, said the campaign was planning a party unity rally for the middle of next week in the Waterville area.

Abbott's and Poliquin's campaign representatives did not return calls Wednesday for comment.

Ethan Wilensky-Lanford -- 620-7016

ewlanford@mainetoday.com