AUGUSTA —Maine voters widened the opportunity to elect their third independent in six governors when they went to the polls, campaign watchers said Wednesday.

What was once a field bulging with about two dozen candidates was winnowed to five Tuesday as Waterville Mayor Paul LePage scored a stunning win in the seven-way Republican primary, and state Senate President Libby Mitchell beat three rivals to win the Democratic nomination. The major party candidates join three independents in the race to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. John Baldacci.

Eliot Cutler, whose political background and access to funding make him the leading independent candidate, was quick to stake out the middle ground, saying the Democrats and Republicans “reverted to their old, ideological habits in a year when the vast majority of Maine voters could care less about party labels.”

Cutler, a former energy adviser to President Jimmy Carter, said Maine voters have elected independents as two of their last five governors and are poised to do so in 2010. Independents are Maine’s largest voting bloc at 37 percent, followed by Democrats at 32 percent and Republicans at 27 percent. The remaining 4 percent of Maine voters belong to the Green Party.

Not that Cutler would have an easy path to the governor’s office, said University of Maine political science associate Professor Amy Fried.

“Eliot Cutler is a very smart and well-informed person, but I don’t think he’s Angus King,” Fried said. King enjoyed better name recognition and a higher profile statewide when he entered the race, she said.

Besides, Cutler faces competition from two other independents, including car repair business owner Shawn Moody of Gorham, who said the $500,000 he’s borrowed for the campaign shows he’s quite serious about it. The third independent, Kevin Scott of Andover, has collected less than $6,000 for his run.

“I’ve never believed it would be an easy row to hoe,” Cutler said. “I’ve never done anything quixotic in my life. I’m setting out to run and win.”

Democratic candidate Mitchell wouldn’t speculate on the effect independent candidates might have on the election, other than to say people cross party lines all the time. The independent candidates did not participate in the primary.

“They want to know the person, they want to know you’re fighting for the things they believe in,” Mitchell said. “Certainly we’ll reach out to them every single day.”

GOP Chairman Charles Webster dismissed Cutler’s credentials as an independent, saying he “spent his life as a Democrat.” Cutler said he’s been enrolled in both parties, but has “tried both suits on and they don’t fit.”

UMaine’s Fried predicted that party candidates might put a lot of effort in the months leading up to the November election into depicting their opponents as extreme to the left or right. How wide a berth that’ll create for independents is unclear, she said.

It’s not known how many independents have joined the ranks of tea partiers, who proved influential in Tuesday’s voting. LePage courted the tea party for support and ended up with 38 percent of the vote in a seven-man race. Even he was stunned by the finish.

“Our ‘boots on the ground’ made a huge difference in getting Paul LePage’s message out to the people of this state,” tea party activist Amy Hale said in her Maine Patriots blog.

The Maine Democrats’ coordinated campaign director Arden Manning said LePage’s election “completed the story of the tea party’s takeover of the Republican Party.” The first chapter was adoption in May of a GOP platform inspired by the tea party, Manning said.

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