BANGOR — With his family around him and volunteers serving up bread and salad, Joe Baldacci loaded spaghetti onto paper plates Thursday, the latest in a series of community suppers that are part of his bid to become the next congressman from Maine’s 2nd Congressional District.
He bantered with his brother John, a former two-term governor who also represented the district, the largest east of the Mississippi.
He shook hands and hugged many longtime supporters from his hometown, many of whom recalled Momma Baldacci’s, the family restaurant.
An hour earlier, Joe, an attorney and Democratic state senator, demanded that one of his opponents condemn out of state money being spent to influence the race. He also answered questions about whether he’s unfairly benefitting from the backing of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
The contrast — from standing behind a podium addressing reporters to standing behind a plastic partition serving up spaghetti — is all part of the final days leading up to Tuesday’s election.
A poll released Friday shows Baldacci leading on election night with 27% of the vote, followed by State Auditor Matt Dunlap at 22%, former congressional aide Jordan Wood at 21% and social worker Paige Loud at 11%.
The SurveyUSA poll, conducted in conjunction with the Bangor Daily News, shows Baldacci eventually prevailing following a ranked choice count. The poll shows Baldacci at 56% to Wood’s 44% when all rounds of voting are calculated.
During his news conference, Baldacci told reporters that a Republican backed group from out of state is running ads to boost Dunlap because they don’t want Baldacci to be the Democratic nominee.
“They know that I am the strongest candidate to beat Paul LePage in November,” Baldacci said. “Democrats, we can’t be fooled by this scam. We need to tell Donald Trump and the DC Republicans to stay out of our Democratic primary.”
The seat is hotly contested because U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat, decided in November not to seek reelection to the district that’s also voted for Trump three times.
It’s seen as a key pickup opportunity for Republicans, who are betting that LePage, a former two-term governor, is their best chance to flip the seat red.
LePage got a boost from Vice President JD Vance last month when Vance endorsed him during an anti-fraud rally in Bangor.
Vance called LePage “the biggest advocate for your tax dollars, and the biggest threat to fraudsters that ever existed in the state of Maine.”
Trump previously endorsed LePage in December.
Baldacci is benefitting from the backing of national Democrats who named him to its “Red to Blue” program that’s designed to take back control of the House. His opponents expressed outrage that the group got involved in a primary.
But Baldacci says he spent five months building a local campaign before the DCCC got involved.
“They are choosing me in the last 30 days not because it’s going to somehow be a magic elixir,” he said. “I was already ahead in most of the polling when they chose me. The fact is they chose us because we can have the best chance of beating Paul LePage in November.”