A new online poll released late last week suggests Democrat Janet Mills is leading in the race to be Maine’s next governor with about an 8-point advantage over Republican Shawn Moody.

The poll, of 500 likely voters statewide, by the Portland-based Pan Atlantic Research was conducted the first week in October suggested that 44.4 percent would vote for Mills, a Farmington resident and the state’s current Attorney General, or were leaning towards her, while 35.9 percent said the would vote for Moody, the Gorham businessman and the founder of a chain of auto body shops. The survey has a margin of error of about 4.4 percent.

The survey included 500 likely voters and the data were weighted using U.S. Census Bureau data to match the composition of Maine’s historical voting population based on Congressional District, age, education, income, and gender according to the poll.

The survey respondents were equally split between genders and between the state’s two U.S. Congressional districts.

Other highlights of the poll suggest that U.S. Sen. Angus King was leading his Republican challenger state Sen. Eric Brakey by a fairly large margin, with 57 percent saying they would likely vote for King, an independent and former two-term governor, while 29 percent said they would likely voter for Brakey, a resident of Auburn.

Meanwhile the race for Maine’s 2nd Congressional district featuring incumbent Republican Bruce Poliquin and challenger Jared Golden, a Democratic state representative from Lewiston, appears locked in a dead heat with 37 percent saying they were likely to vote for Poliquin while 36.5 percent said they were likely to vote for Golden.

This story will be updated.

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