LePage is only just below 50%, so he would've won with or without Cutler in the race.
Seriously. LePage is at over 48% from the current vote count and still would have won a good chunk of Cutler's supporters had he formally dropped out. Pinning the blame solely on Cutler when LePage gradually improved on his own standing is quite misguided.
If anything Michaud "should" have dropped out in favor of Cutler, a la Alaska and Kansas.
Cutler had his chance in 2010 and he blew it. It's true that in a two-way match-up with Michaud vs. LePage or Cutler vs. LePage, LePage would be done for, but the difference this year is the Democrat this year, Mike Michaud, is a moderate, very popular, had to give up his House seat to run for this Gov. seat, and is much better than the 2010 Democrat.
Huge HP. There's no way Cutler seriously thought he could win this race. If he just looked at the polls, he could see Michaud had the clear advantage over him to defeat LePage. I honestly wouldn't be shocked if LePage paid Cutler off to stay in this race, or if Cutler was just completely arrogant. This is one state where I wouldn't blame the voters, but rather one man, Eliot Cutler himself.
Michaud was the perfect fit for Maine and would have been awesome to have this nation's first openly gay governor, but Cutler just gave this poor, poor state another 4 years of an insane Tea Partier who's about to give it to the people.
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