The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), which endorsed Blattner on Wednesday, commissioned the new poll, which showed him at 58% compared to Mills’ 38%.
Nancy Zdonkiewicz, a pollster at Z to A Polling, which conducted the poll on behalf of the PCCC, said the poll represents “really impressive early consolidation” for Blatner, with the primary still six months away.
“Blatner is not only leading in the Democratic primary. He’s leading by a huge margin, 20 points, 58% support him,” Zdonkiewicz said. He said Zitio. “Only 38% support Mills. There are very few undecided voters or weak supporters of a Mills win at this stage of the race.”
Blatner has consistently spoken to packed rooms across Maine since launching his campaign in August, promoting a platform that is unapologetically focused on providing affordability and improving the quality of life for Mainers.
It supports expansion the popular Medicare for All Americans program; He drew a standing ovation at an early rally when he declared that “our taxpayer money can build schools and hospitals in America, not bombs to destroy them in Gaza.” He spoke in support Break up Tech giants and federal war crimes investigation To Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over his fatal boat strikes in the Caribbean.
Mills entered the race after Democratic leaders, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), urged her to do so. She received national attention earlier this year for standing up to President Donald Trump when he threatened federal funding to Maine over the state’s policy of allowing students to play on school sports teams that correspond with their gender.
But the PCCC survey found that when respondents learned details about each candidate, negative criticism of Mills was more damaging to her than Blatner’s old Reddit posts and tattoos.
Revealing Blatner’s recent controversy with voters she polled, as well as his statements about how his views have changed in recent years, Zdonkiewicz found that 21% of voters were more likely to support him after learning about his background. 39% said they were less likely to support him.
The pollster also spoke to poll respondents about the fact that establishment Democrats pushed Mills, 77, into the race, and about a number of bills she vetoed as governor, including a tax on the wealthy, a bill to create a tracking system for rape kits, two bills to reduce prescription drug costs, and several bills that strengthen workers’ rights.
Only 14% of Mainers said they were more likely to vote for Mills after learning those details, while 50% said they were less likely to support her.
in The craneLuke Goldstein on Wednesday I mentioned Mills’ veto left many with “the perception that she is mostly concerned with business interests,” said former Maine Democratic Rep. Andy O’Brien. Corporate interests gave more than $200,000 to Mills’ two gubernatorial campaigns.
Earlier this year, Mills shot down a labor-backed bill to allow farmworkers to discuss their wages with each other without fear of retaliation. Last year, she blocked a bill to set minimum wages for farmworkers, and vetoed a provision that would have allowed workers to sue their employers.
She also vetoed a bill banning non-compete agreements and one that would ban anti-union tactics by companies.
“In previous years,” Goldstein reported, “she blocked efforts to prevent employers from penalizing employees who took state-guaranteed paid leave, killed a reform bill allowing streamlining of offshore wind energy developments because it included a provision mandating union jobs, and vetoed a modest labor bill that would have required state government to even consider the issue of forcing paper mill workers to work overtime without adequate compensation.”
Speaking to PCCC supporters on Wednesday, Plattner Suggested The new poll shows that many Maine residents agree with his campaign’s core argument: “We need to build power back for working people, both in Maine and nationally.”
He said the poll “makes clear what our theory is, which is that we’re not going to beat Susan Collins who’s running the same exact kind of playbook that we’ve run in the past — an establishment politician backed by power structures, backed by Washington, D.C., coming to Maine and trying to run some kind of record race… We’re really trying to build a grassroots movement here.”
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