Independent Elected Maine’s Next Governor

Independent candidate Angus King, telegenic former host of a highbrow current affairs program on public broadcasting, emerged from a four-candidate field to narrowly become Maine’s new governor, winning 36% of the vote Tuesday.

The Independent governors in two other states did not run for reelection, so King will stand alone as the only state leader who is neither Democrat nor Republican.

Catapulted to competitive status by the near-collapse of untested Republican nominee Susan Collins, King targeted front-running Democrat Joseph Brennan as an advocate of stale ideas left over from his previous two terms as chief executive.

Dismissing the Democrat as an echo from the past, King pledged to open up government to new approaches and bring fresh talent and modern management to the capital.

King, who once worked as a Democratic congressional staff aide and considered a U.S. House bid of his own as a Democrat in 1986, withdrew his party enrollment in August, 1993, to enter the gubernatorial race as an independent.

That was nine months after independent Ross Perot finished second--ahead of summer resident George Bush--in the state’s 1992 presidential balloting.

A youthful-looking 50, King charged state government with a “gotcha” mentality toward developers and urged adoption of a streamlined permit process. He netted $8 million from the sale of an energy management company he founded and provided most of the money for his own campaign.