A new poll from Pan Atlantic Research — a Portland-based independent marketing research and consulting firm — revealed this month that a substantial portion of Mainers feel that the state is on the wrong track, citing the cost of living, housing, and high taxes as their primary concerns.
Similar to the results of University of New Hampshire’s Pine Tree State Poll released last month, Pan Atlantic Research found that over 40 percent of Mainers feel that the state is on the wrong track.
[RELATED: More Than 40% of Mainers Say State is on the Wrong Track — Pine Tree State Poll]
When broken down by political affiliation, Democrats were far more likely to indicate that the state is on the right track than either Independents or Republicans.
While 69 percent of Democrats believe the state is moving in the right direction, just 33 percent of Independents and 17 percent of Republicans feel the same way.
There was also a noticeable regional divide on this question, with 46 percent of District 1 respondents indicating that the state is on right track compared to just 34 percent of those from District 2.
When asked to identify the top three issues facing the state today, the most common response was the cost of living, noted by 67 percent of respondents.
This was closely followed by housing at 37 percent, and high taxes at 28 percent, which nearly tied with inflation.
Nineteen percent of respondents cited immigration, access to healthcare and insurance coverage, and climate change or environmental issues.
Respondents were also asked to indicate how favorable they felt toward a number of Maine’s political figures.
Sen. Angus King (I) was ranked favorably by 63 percent of Mainers, the greatest share out of all the state politicians included in the survey.
Rep. Jared Golden (D) and his Republican opponent State Representative Austin Theriault (R-Fort Kent) were tied for the lowest level of favorability at 43 percent. While Rep. Theriault’s ranking appears to be largely the result of respondents being unfamiliar with him, Rep. Golden’s seems to stem primarily from unfavorable opinions
Rep. Chellie Pingree (D) received the second highest percentage of favorable responses, coming in at 57 percent, followed by Gov. Janet Mills (D) at 53 percent and Sen. Susan Collins (R) at 49 percent.
Click Here to Read the Full Poll Results
This poll was conducted September 5 and September 15 with a selected sample of 875 Mainers. Responses were only included from those who indicated that they were “likely,” “very likely,” or “certain” to vote in the upcoming election.
The results represent 812 likely voters and have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 percent at a 95 percent confidence level.
Due to the rounding of decimals, not all figures reported by the organization equal an even hundred percent.
Thank the local propaganda machine for the high ratings of the politicians.
Maine is a mess.
If people went to NH for a day they’d realize how dirty and poor and poorly run the state is.
I was surprised to see the 40% who said right direction. Guess that means 40% of maine is either an immigrant, on welfare, works for the state or just plain
retardedfoolish, good to know.It is the Mane people nature to go along to get along even if their mouth is full of S***.
In day-to-day conversations, Dems seem to be over confident that Dems will solve our problems, while Reps tend to believe that Dems are on a path to Hell. Keep in mind that Reps will never apply for government help.
As everyone struggles to make ends meet it means they have less to spend at local businesses. Employers are paying higher prices and selling less, that means lower wages and fewer hours. It’s like a dog chasing his tail. The question is does it better? Or continue down hill?