Leftovers from the campaign trail while waiting for Greenwood residents to pick our next governor in 2014 …

As the returns trickled in election night and the governor’s race showed a nail-biter between Republican Paul LePage and independent Eliot Cutler, reporters and political junkies were looking for signs of where the race was heading.

All they needed to do was talk to clerks at the Greenwood Town Office.

Greenwood’s election results foreshadowed LePage’s victory about 12 hours before it became official. That will come as no surprise to those who read our pre-election story about how the town has picked the winning governor for the last 44 years and 11 elections.

After Tuesday, the streak moved to 48 years and 12 elections.

On Tuesday, the majority of Greenwood voters picked LePage, giving him 172 of the town’s 389 votes, or 44 percent. Cutler was second with 28 percent, followed by Democrat Libby Mitchell (17 percent), Shawn Moody (6 percent) and Kevin Scott (4 percent).

LePage’s victory was especially sweet for Greenwood resident Ken Roberts, a diehard Republican, who in the story described himself as a loser when picking governors. In 44 years, Roberts has voted for the winner only twice.

Roberts was a winner this election, in more ways than one. Not only did his man LePage win, but Roberts, 70, didn’t stay up all night waiting to find out. According to his wife Barbara, Roberts went to bed at 7 p.m., an hour before the polls closed.

“He’s down with the sun, up with the birds,” Barbara said.

Roberts was ecstatic about LePage’s victory and Republicans’ seizure of both chambers in the Legislature.

“The third time’s a charm, I guess,” he said, referring to his third correct pick since 1966. “The ball is in (LePage’s) court now, with Republicans in control of the Legislature. I think we’re going to see some real change.”

Barbara didn’t seem as thrilled as her husband. She said she was OK with the outcome, even though she preferred the “other guy,” Cutler.

So, did she vote for Cutler?

“I’d better not say,” she said, laughing.

Wise move given that Ken once threatened not to drive her to the polls when he found out she wasn’t voting Republican.

From the inbox

The only people more pumped than Ken Roberts about LePage’s victory would seem to be the folks at the Maine Heritage Policy Center, the conservative, and supposedly nonpartisan, think tank based in Portland.

The day after the election, the center sent a triumphant e-mail to supporters.

“Last night, Maine voters gave us an unprecedented and historic opportunity to advance the pro-growth, pro-freedom agenda for which we have fought so hard,” the e-mail said.

The message used “pro-freedom” three times and encouraged donations so that the center could continue “to engage the new Governor and Legislature to drive home our plan to transform Maine.”

It’s worth noting that GOP candidates, including LePage, made heavy use of the policy center’s research on the campaign trail, and that the Tarren Bragdon, the CEO of the center, was recently tapped to co-chair LePage’s transition team. 

That’s a lot of influence for a nonpartisan, nonprofit agency.

Other nonprofits aren’t immune from showing their partisan stripes. Some left-leaning groups were less than thrilled about Tuesday’s results.

The Natural Resources Council of Maine told its supporters in an e-mail that the election of LePage and the Republican Legislature could “increase threats to Maine’s environment.”

The message went on to rehash some of LePage’s previous statements about offshore drilling, nuclear power plants and dismantling the state Department of Environmental Protection.

“This election was not a mandate to destroy Maine’s environment, rollback Maine’s environmental safeguards, or dismantle the agencies that help provide clean air, clean water, and protected places for ourselves, our families, and future generations,” the e-mail read.

The Maine People’s Alliance was similarly crestfallen by the GOP takeover of the Legislature. The group sent a letter lamenting the influence of outside money in the legislative races, including $400,000 into five state Senate races by GOP operative Karl Rove.

“The buying of our legislature by corporate interests is deeply troubling,” the MPA release said. “It’s a blow to our democracy and to Maine’s history of clean elections. It will likely mean that corporations will have more say in the policy decisions of Maine’s legislature in the years ahead.”

Some of that money went into the senate race between Democratic incumbent Sen. Deb Simpson and Republican challenger Lois Snowe-Mello.

Snowe-Mello won.

Grab your tinfoil hats

Earlier this week the Sun Journal published an Election Day postmortem reviewing the role polls might have had in determining the governor’s race.

University of Maine-Farmington political science professor Jim Melcher cited a Rasmussen survey that for the first time showed Cutler passing Mitchell. Melcher viewed the poll as a defining moment that helped explain Cutler’s late surge to second place.

Cutler’s surge, along with 53,000 absentee ballots turned in by Democrat voters, also assured that the independent would split the Democrat vote with Libby Mitchell — a positive outcome for LePage.

So here’s something for conspiracy theorists to chew on: The Oct. 12 Rasmussen survey that showed Cutler gaining support was released around the same time another poll showed him at the same level of support he had had since September.

Rasmussen is considered be a Republican-leaning polling firm. The local Associated Press outlet has told us that it won’t report Rasmussen polls because of this perceived bias.

Shortly before Election Day, the Maine Heritage Policy Center announced that Scott Rasmussen, the CEO of Rasmussen polls, would be hosting a Nov. 10 “freedom and opportunity” luncheon (freedom — there’s that word again).

And guess who else will attend the luncheon?

LePage.

Discuss.

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