Two out of the five candidates vying to
succeed Maine Governor John Baldacci support gay marriage.
Democrat Libby Mitchell and independent
Eliot Cutler say they would sign a gay marriage law, while
independents Shawn Moody and Kevin Scott, and Republican Paul LePage
oppose the institution, an AP survey found.
“Yes, I will continue to lead on this
issue until Maine ends discrimination in our marriage laws,”
Mitchell said. “It is a matter of human fairness and
constitutional fairness and it is past time for Maine to adopt
marriage equality.”
Cutler agreed, saying he does not
believe that “religion should be making laws for government, or
that government should be making laws for religion.”
Last year, Baldacci became only the
second governor in the United States – and the first Roman Catholic
– to sign a gay marriage law. But opponents, led by the Roman
Catholic Diocese of Portland and the National Organization for
Marriage (NOM), the nation's most vociferous opponent of gay
marriage, put a question on the November ballot that repealed the
measure before it took effect.
Republican LePage said he backs the
decision.
“I support and trust the voters'
decision to keep the current law defining marriage as the sacred
union of one man and one woman,” he said.
According to a Greenberg Quinlan Rosner
Research poll of 500 likely voters released Friday, Mitchell has
pulled within striking distance of LePage, whose July 12-point lead
has plummeted from 44 percent to 38 percent. Mitchell now trails
LePage by only 4 points. Independent candidates Cutler, Moody and
Scott share a combined 20 points.
Mitchell is expected to get another
boost on Sunday night, when former President Bill Clinton headlines a
rally for the Democrat at Southern Maine Community College in South
Portland. Baldacci is scheduled to open the rally.