Mainers indifferent to primary Survey: Most voters don’t know candidates

BANGOR – While some expect voter turnout to be low for the June 13 primary election, voter “tune out” appears to be high.

In a statewide poll released last week, two-thirds of Mainers couldn’t name any of the declared candidates trying to unseat the current occupant of the Blaine House, Gov. John Baldacci.

“People are just too busy with their own lives,” said Clarence Neal Jr., a registered voter in Bangor, while he stood in line at a local grocery store Wednesday afternoon.

But while Neal, a 52-year-old insurance claims adjuster, understands those without an interest in the governor’s race, he doesn’t count himself among them.

Neal, a Republican, can name most of the candidates with relative ease, and he’s already made his pick for the coming primary. He said he receives most of his information about the campaign from the newspaper.

MaryEllen FitzGerald, whose company Critical Insights conducted the survey, said the inability of people to name the Blaine House hopefuls wasn’t surprising considering the contest’s relatively low-intensity.

“It’s not a particularly engaging race at the moment,” said FitzGerald, whose survey found that Republicans – in the midst of the cycle’s most competitive primary contest – were the quickest to recite the names of those running.

In total, 19 percent of Mainers surveyed could name Republican candidate David Emery of St. George, a former congressman. Seventeen percent could name Peter Mills, a state senator from Cornville; and 15 percent could name Chandler Woodcock, a state senator from Farmington.

Only 3 percent could name Maine Green Independent Party candidate Pat LaMarche, who is running unopposed in her primary. Two percent could name independent Barbara Merrill of Appleton, and less than 1 percent could name independent John Michael of Auburn.

The Critical Insights survey of 604 Mainers was conducted between May 24 and 30, and has a 4 percent margin of error.

While Republicans appeared to be paying closer attention at this point in the race, 53 percent of those surveyed still couldn’t name any candidates, compared to 68 percent of Democrats and 75 percent of independents.

Grace Nugent of Bangor said Wednesday she couldn’t recall any of the GOP contenders’ names, but did know Baldacci and his primary opponent, Christopher Miller of Gray.

“I’m just like everybody else,” said Nugent, an 81-year-old registered Republican. “People just don’t pay attention. When you come to vote, you just mark the ballot and say one’s as good as the other.”

Nugent said she does plan on voting in next Tuesday’s GOP primary and, when prompted, said she did recognize her party’s three nominees.

Even among Republicans, Nugent’s response seemed to fall in line with the survey results, which found that just 29 percent were able to name Emery without prompting, 20 percent could name Mills, and 22 percent could name Woodcock.

Jim Melcher, a political scientist at the University of Maine at Farmington, said he found the survey’s results somewhat troubling. In particular, he cited the relatively low percentages of Republicans who could name any of their three candidates just weeks away from the primary.

But the general election is still five months away, he noted, and conventional wisdom suggests people don’t start paying close attention to politics until after Labor Day.

“I think it will be a while,” Melcher said. “It’s summer and people have other things on their minds besides who they are going to vote for in November.”