Time to ‘Reboot,’ Cutler Tells Southport Gathering

Maine voters need to give Democrats and Republicans a “time out,” independent candidate for governor Eliot Cutler said at Southport Town Hall, Tuesday, June 17.

“I am highly confident we are going to show Mr. LePage the door,” Cutler said. “That’s not the hard question.”

“The hard question, the really important question, is ‘Who do we choose to take his place?” Cutler said. “Are we going to replace what’s not working today with what didn’t work before, or are we going to set out in a new direction?”

Economic activity in Maine has declined drastically since independent Angus King left office 11 years ago, throughout the administrations of Democrat John Baldacci and Republican Gov. Paul LePage, Cutler said.

“We’ve gone from the middle of the pack in New England – ahead of Connecticut, ahead of Rhode Island, ahead of Vermont, neck and neck with Massachusetts and way ahead of the national average in 2003 – to here in 2013, way behind every other state, way behind the national average,” Cutler said.

“How can this be? We have assets and resources in Maine that any other state in America would like to have,” Cutler said. “Our people, our communities, our woods, our rivers, the ocean, the Gulf of Maine.”

“Why has this happened?” Cutler said. “I’ll suggest to you that it’s because we don’t have a plan.”

Cutler’s campaign staff distributed copies of his plan – a 104-page book entitled “A State of Opportunity: A Plan to Build a Healthier, Smarter, Stronger, Younger and More Prosperous Maine.”

“We have to think differently and we have to act differently in order to solve our challenges – economic, demographic, and political,” Cutler said. “We have to reboot.”

In a question-and-answer session after his speech, Cutler said he does not think either LePage or Democrat Mike Michaud “would be a competent governor for the state of Maine.”

He directed most of his criticism at Michaud, painting the congressman as a Washington politician who serves the special interest groups that have supported his campaigns.

“I don’t think the governor of the state of Maine should have any obligations to anyone except to the people who elected him, whether they voted for him or not, whether they contributed money or not,” Cutler said.

Cutler fielded a question about whether his candidacy will split the vote and help LePage win re-election.

“The short answer is, I’m going to win,” he said. He implored everyone who thinks he would make the best governor to give him their support and tell their friends and neighbors “who you’re for and why.”

“If, on the day of the election, the fourth of November, you wake up and you say ‘I don’t think he can win,’ you have my blessing to vote for someone else,” he said.

Southport resident and Cutler supporter Tom Myette hosted the reception, which attracted a good-sized crowd of supporters and curious or undecided voters.

East Boothbay retiree Lola O’Byrne voted for Cutler in 2010 and plans to do so again in November. “I really hope he makes it this time,” O’Byrne said.

“I think he’s the best candidate, and I think it’s time for an independent,” she said. “He can talk to both sides and see what he can do.”

Boothbay retiree Nick Barth also voted for Cutler in 2010. He has yet to commit to a candidate this year. “I am basically trying to decide between Eliot Cutler and Mike Michaud,” Barth said.

Barth has been a Republican and a Democrat. Both parties “left me way behind,” he said, and today he belongs to neither.

A conservationist by trade, Barth has contacted both campaigns to share his ideas about his area of expertise. The Cutler campaign has been receptive, while the Michaud campaign has not, he said.

Barth was also pleased with Cutler’s answer to a question about the candidate’s vision for northern Maine, and feels Cutler has moved closer to his position on the matter.

Bremen Selectman Wendy Pieh voted for Cutler in 2010 and will do so again in November, she said.

A Democrat, Pieh was a state representative from 1996-2000 and 2006-2010. Today, she chairs the Bremen Board of Selectmen and runs Springtide Farm, the Bremen goat farm she owns with her husband.

Pieh supported former Speaker of the House and Attorney General Steve Rowe in the Democratic primary in 2010. When Senate President Libby Mitchell defeated Rowe, she joined the Cutler camp.

She supports Cutler because “he’s visionary, he’ll do the best job, he’s open-minded, and he’s very willing to listen,” she said. He also has “lots of policy experience” from his years in Washington, D.C.

Pieh served in the Legislature during the administrations of independent Angus King and Democrat John Baldacci.

An independent governor makes a “huge” difference “because if the Republicans get a great idea, the governor can act on it,” Pieh said. “If the Democrats get a great idea, the governor can act on it.”

“You don’t get into the same partisan bickering that’s such a problem right now,” she said.

Before his speech, Cutler brought Boothbay Town Republican Committee Chairwoman Dawn Gilbert, former Democratic Rep. Leila Percy, and Pieh to the front of the hall.

“I can bring people together,” Cutler said. “I wanted to make the point that, in Maine, there really is not a lot to separate us from each other.”

Cutler worked in Washington, D.C. for the late U.S. Senator Edmund Muskie and as an associate director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. He has had a successful career in the private sector, founding the law firm Cutler & Stanfield LLP.

He ran for governor in 2010 and narrowly lost, with 35.9 percent of the vote to 37.6 for LePage and 18.8 for Mitchell. Cutler lives in Cape Elizabeth with his wife of 40 years, Dr. Melanie Stewart Cutler.