Mitchell, LePage top election results
Maine voters advanced Democrat Libby Mitchell and Republican Paul LePage as candidates for governor, rejected a new tax reform law and approved at least three bonds in yesterday's election.
With 79% of precincts reporting, Senate President Mitchell won 35% of the Democratic vote, followed by Steve Rowe with 23%, Rosa Scarcelli with 21% and Pat McGowan with 20%, according to reports from the Bangor Daily News and the Kennebec Journal. On the Republican side, Waterville Mayor LePage garnered 38% of the vote, followed most closely by Les Otten with 17% and Peter Mills with 14%. The party nominees will appear on the November ballot along with Independents Eliot Cutler and Kevin Scott. Independent Shawn Moody, who previously qualified to appear on the ballot, will announce today if he will continue to run. Voter turnout for the election was estimated to be 20%, considered high for an off-year election, according to the Associated Press.
Voters also repealed a tax reform package passed last year by the Legislature, with 61% in favor of repeal, according to the Kennebec Journal. The tax reform measure would have cut the state's top income tax rate from 8.5% to 6.5%, expanded the sales tax to new goods and services and increased the meals and lodging tax from 7% to 8.5%.
A trio of bond packages was approved, while a fourth had a narrow lead as votes were tallied and seemed likely to pass. Question 2, a $26.5 million bond for energy development, won 59% of votes; Question 3, a $47.8 million transportation bond, won 58%; and Question 5, a $10.3 million bond for water and wastewater improvements, was approved by 55% of voters. Question 4, the so-called $23.8 million jobs bond, had 51% of the votes with more than 75% of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press. Projects funded by the approved bonds include the purchase of northern Maine rail lines being abandoned by Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, a mega berth at Portland's Ocean Gateway terminal and deep-water offshore wind research at the University of Maine in Orono. Question 4 includes funds earmarked for the redevelopment of the Brunswick Naval Air Station and the establishment of a new campus of Southern Maine Community College at the property, as well as $3 million for the Maine Technology Institute and $4 million for the Small Enterprise Growth Fund.
Voters in Lewiston also gave the OK to a proposed casino at the Bates Mill complex. Residents voted 5,041-2,574 in support of selling the land beneath Bates Mill No. 5 to Great Falls Recreation and Redevelopment LLC for $150,000, according to unofficial results from the city. The group must now gather enough signatures to put the question to a statewide vote on the November 2011 ballot, according to the Sun Journal.
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