By Lisa Williams Ackley
Staff Writer

FRYEBURG — Eliot Cutler, who is running for the highest office in the state, says he is “Independent, just like Maine.”

So, he’s hoping voters will elect him as the only the Independent governor of Maine since Angus King.

Cutler, who was endorsed this week by all of the major daily newspapers in Maine — The Portland Press Herald, Lewiston Sun Journal and The Bangor Daily News — has decried what he calls the negative campaign advertising tactics by supporters of Democrat Libby Mitchell and Republican Paul LePage.

During a visit to Fryeburg last week, Cutler shook hands and answered questions from employees at Dearborn Precision Tubular Products on Portland Street and later on spoke about his priorities at a meet and greet session in Fryeburg Village.

MAINE GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE ELIOT CUTLER — greeted the employees at Dearborn Precision Tubular Products in Fryeburg, last week. (Ackley Photo)

Cutler, who is an attorney and businessman, says, “Maine can work. That’s the theme for my campaign. We need to get Maine people back to work, and we need to create a government that works effectively and efficiently, at a price we can all afford.”

Cutler worked for Senator Edmund S. Muskie of Maine, after graduating from Harvard College, and he helped craft the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and other laws important to Maine. He later served as Associate Director for Natural Resources, Energy and Science in the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) where he was responsible for overseeing the policies at the Departments of Agriculture, Energy and Interior and at the Environmental Protection Agency. Additionally, he was the principal White House official for energy matters from 1977 to 1980, and at President Carter’s request, he helped negotiate a settlement to the Maine Indian Land Claims. He has also been a senior official in four presidential campaigns.

Cutler says his “Strategy for Maine” is just what the state needs, at this precarious time and given the current economic situation.

“Our most critical task is to lower the cost of living and doing business in Maine,” Cutler said. He cited the urgent need for lower electricity costs, lower healthcare costs and lower costs for state government, in order to accomplish this goal.

“We are a strong ‘governor’ state,” the 64-year-old Bangor native said Oct. 19, “and a strong leader in this office in Maine can exercise the kind of authority we’re going to need to fix the mess in Maine.”

As for his plan to “rebuild Maine by investing in its competitive assets,” Cutler said there needs to be “a committed investment in a trained and educated workforce, in Maine’s natural resources and in tourism, recreation and Maine’s Places of Character.”

“As an Independent governor, I will not cater to party bosses, special interest groups, the extreme Left or the far Right,” said Candidate Cutler. “Wherever you live, whatever you do, whoever you are, I will be your governor.”

As several polls around Maine show he is gaining on Democrat Mitchell, Cutler said Sunday, “I am the only one of the five candidates for governor who has a  ‘favorable’ rating. There are at least as many people afraid of Libby Mitchell as are afraid of Paul LePage. I wouldn’t vote for either of them.”

Cutler then cut to the chase, saying, “I love this state, and this is the most important election in Maine — it’s about what kind of people we are and what kind of state we want to be. I think I will win, and it will become evident, later this week.”