Not that I’m fond of the Portland Press Herald, but this is pretty big: “Our endorsement for governor: Eliot Cutler the best choice to lead Maine forward“.
University of Southern Maine’s Free Press also endorsed him today: “Eliot Cutler for Governor“.
I have a good Cutler story from last week. I was leaving my class at USM on Thursday night, and I saw Cutler and his wife in the parking garage. I accosted them, told him that I was interested in voting for him, but had concerns about his education platform (I had recently read a blurb about his wanting to increase classroom sizes). He shifted into politician-mode about some mailer from the MEA about teacher layoffs, which I quickly brushed aside – I just wanted to know the facts of his platform.
He went into his prepared remarks about 11.3 students for every teacher and Maine having the second-highest student-teacher ratio, and by increasing it to 13.5 it’d save something like $140 million.
I said that I’d look into it some more, but that I was still 90% sure I’d vote for him.
And then he did something classy.
He said, “Josh, if you don’t vote for me, please email me and let me know why.”
Now shoot, will I really email him if I don’t vote for him? Will he really read it if I really mail him? Will he care why?
But still, I thought it was classy.
Quite honestly I’m going to vote after my Tuesday night USM class, at around 7 pm, and I’ll see where bat-shit crazy Tea Partier Paul LePage is in the standings, and then vote accordingly.
I’m all for independents, but not if elect a nutball (cough) George W. Bush (cough).
Anyway, I ended by saying how I was attending Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity this weekend, and I was contemplating wearing a Cutler tee shirt. His wife thought that was a good idea.
So even if I don’t vote for him, I think I’ll wear a shirt.