Why did Maine vote for Hubert Humphrey?

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I always thought it was probably because of Muskie.  If he hadn't been on the Dem ticket, my guess is that Nixon probably would have carried it, largely because he carried it in 1960 (but a lot of states switched from Nixon states in 1960 to Humphrey states in 1968 and from Kennedy states in 1960 to Nixon states in 1968).  I think Maryland, which was Spiro Agnew's home state (on the GOP ticket with Nixon) voted for Humphrey, too, however.  Interesting fact:  I have watched some of the Election Night 1968 coverage from NBC where Chet Huntley, after checking some of the scattered returns from Maine, stated that Wallace was leading there, when, in fact, Nixon was (and he didn't correct himself).  And speaking of Wallace, I find it interesting that Humphrey was able to carry Maine with Wallace splitting the Democratic vote (although Wallace probably wouldn't have been a very strong candidate there anyway.)  I think John Edwards was pretty popular as a Senator in North Carolina, but he couldn't deliver the state to John Kerry in '04.  Remember, too, that when Al Gore was the Dems' nominee for president in 2000, he lost in his own home state (Tennessee) as well as Clinton's home state (Arkansas).  If he had carried either of those states, he would have won (even without Florida).  Neither did Lloyd Bentsen help Dukakis carry Texas (but it was Bush I's home state anyway, so I have no idea why the Dems were under any impression that they would carry it).  I'd like to see more research on this, but this is based on what I've seen from looking at the election maps from various years.