Obama heads to Maine to rally for Michaud

As part of a united Democratic front pushing for Mike Michaud’s election to the Blaine House, President Barack Obama will come to Portland to stump for the Democratic congressman.

Michaud, who remains locked in a tight battle with Republican Gov. Paul LePage, and thwarted by the independent candidacy of Eliot Cutler, surely hopes despite his waning popularity that a presidential appearance near Election Day can help him cross the finish line.

Obama is scheduled to appear on the stump for a handful of Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls, according to The Associated Press. The president will travel to Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Maine, a White House official told the AP.

According to a recent Bangor Daily News/Ipsos poll, Michaud leads the field with 42 percent support. LePage garners 36 percent and Cutler tallies 16 percent. About 7 percent said they were undecided or declined to respond. LePage won in 2010 with 38 percent of the vote to Cutler’s about 37 percent and Democrat Libby Mitchell’s 19 percent.

Obama, while losing ground in many parts of the country, may still carry some cache in Maine, a state he carried twice – in fact, all the states Obama is headed to for the last minute push are Democratic strongholds he won in 2008 and 2012.

Michaud has to hope the high-profile appearance will spur voter enthusiasm and draw out even casual voters, or even peel votes away from Cutler, who is cutting into his liberal base.

LePage has had his own high-profile help in recent weeks, with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie joining him for a fundraiser and stroll through Lewiston just yesterday. Christie, the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, has been to Maine for three fundraisers this year.

 

Rebekah Metzler

About Rebekah Metzler

Rebekah Metzler is a breaking news editor for CNN's digital politics team in Washington. Previously, she was a senior news editor with U.S. News and World Report, where she began her three-year tenure as a political writer. She spent much of 2012 on the road covering the presidential campaign in battleground states across the country. Metzler proudly tells all who will listen she hails from the great state of Maine where she covered state politics for the Lewiston Sun Journal and MaineToday Media. Metzler earned her master’s degree in journalism from Boston University and her undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College.