There's a lot of discussion today on whether or not independent gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler actually has a hope of winning the governor's race.

In an article that appeared on the front pages of the MaineToday papers this morning, reporter Tom Bell takes a look at history:

In his first election, King was behind in every poll until the last week. By this time in the campaign, however, a poll showed he had 31 percent of the vote, behind only Democrat Joe Brennan.

Cutler said the current political climate is similar to the climate in 1974, when nearly 40 percent of voters were still undecided in the first week of October. A poll on Oct. 17 pegged Longley's support at 10.8 percent, and the press portrayed him as spoiler. In the end, Longley won 40 percent of the vote, to Democrat George Mitchell's 37 percent and Republican James Erwin's 23 percent.

The Bollard also weighed in on the issue in their latest edition, with a cartoon depicting Cutler handing the election to LePage dominating the front page of the Portland-area monthly newspaper.

The story is not yet online, but in it Bollard editor Chris Busby makes the case that Cutler is closer to Mitchell in ideology and is threatening to take enough votes from the left to make LePage Maine's governor.

He writes:

...the difference between Cutler and Mitchell is nothing compared to the differences between their political philosophies and those of the pro-life, pro-nuke LePage, whose hostility towards the media, the president, and the truth has become national news.

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