The two top candidates in Maine's governor's race are running neck-and-neck. That's according to a new poll, which shows Democrat Mike Michaud winning 37 percent support, compared with 36 percent for incumbent Republican Paul LePage.
Independent Eliot Cutler garners the support of 18 percent of the vote, and 8 percent are undecided according to a Critical Insights poll of 601 Maine voters self-described as registered.
The top concern of respondents is unemployment, followed closely by the economy and taxes. That's similar to the Critical Insights tracking poll conducted last fall. But concerns over health care showed a big drop during that period: from 25 percent down to 11 percent.
One big change between the fall 2013 poll and the latest one involves the question of whether Maine and the nation are headed in the right or wrong direction.
In the most recent poll, 40 percent say they're not sure whether the nation is on the right or wrong track, compared with just 3 percent in the fall poll. Forty-two percent in the lastest poll said the country was on the wrong track, while 18 percent said it was on the right track.
Asked the same question about Maine, nearly half of respondents - 48 percent - said they weren't sure, compared with 16 percent in the fall 2013 poll. In the new poll, 34 percent said the state was on the wrong track, while 18 percent approve of the state's direction.
The poll was conducted between April 16 and April 23, and has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
View the entire Critical Insights poll.