FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
APRIL 23, 2010
CONTACT: TED O’MEARA
207.699.4401
ted@cutler2010.com
PORTLAND, Maine – Independent candidate Eliot Cutler today become the first announced candidate for Governor to earn a spot on the November ballot by filing more than 4,000 signatures of registered Maine voters with the Secretary of State’s office.
The Cutler campaign filed its signatures more than five weeks ahead of the June 1 deadline for “non-party” candidates. The Secretary of State has accepted the signatures, paving the way for Cutler to face the eventual Democrat and Republican candidates in the General Election. The two parties will choose their nominees on June 8.
“Maine people can now be assured that there will be a strong, experienced, Independent candidate on the ballot this fall,” said campaign manager Ted O’Meara. “Eliot has a bold plan to get Maine working again, and he offers Maine voters a genuine alternative to politics as usual in a year when they are hungry for change and reform.”
Independent, or unenrolled voters, make up 37.5% of all registered voters in Maine, making them the largest single voting bloc in the state. (Democrats make up 32.6% of the Maine electorate, while Republicans represent 26.6%, and Greens have 3.3%, according to the most recent figures from the Secretary of State’s office.) Two out of the last five Maine Governors have been Independents, and this year Massachusetts and Rhode Island also have strong, credible Independent candidates running for governor.
“We are deeply grateful to our many volunteers – Democrats, Republicans, Independents and Greens — from around the state who helped us gather these signatures,” O’Meara said. “Their efforts are just more evidence of the strength of this campaign. “
ABOUT ELIOT
Eliot Cutler was born and raised in Bangor. After college, he worked in Washington, D.C. for Senator Edmund S. Muskie of Maine, helping to craft the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and other laws important to Maine. He went on to serve as Associate Director for Natural Resources, Energy and Science in the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and was the principal White House official for energy matters from 1977 to 1980. At President Carter’s request, he helped negotiate a settlement to the Maine Indian Land Claims.
Following his government service, Eliot founded the law firm of Cutler & Stanfield LLP, which grew to become the second largest environmental law firm in the United States, concentrating on job-creating infrastructure projects such as airports, highways and other major public facilities. After a number of years of working on projects around the country from a base in Washington, Cutler returned to Maine permanently in late 1999, just prior to his law firm’s merger with the international firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP.
Cutler also has been a highly successful businessman and entrepreneur, helping to start or acquire several businesses and serving on the boards of large and small companies, as well as not-for-profit organizations. He was chairman of the board of visitors of the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine for nearly a decade and helped lead the School to its position as one of the leading graduate schools of public policy in the United States.
Cutler lives in Cape Elizabeth with his wife, Dr. Melanie Stewart Cutler. Their family includes three grown children.
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Tags: Release