Independents make up the largest voting block in Maine, with 37 percent of voters registered with neither the Democratic nor Republican Parties. The state motto, “Dirigo,” or, I Lead, is sometimes invoked as a justification for what some have called the state's “fairly schizophrenic election results.” The state’s most beloved politician is the ever-affable Independent Senator Angus King, whose cult of admirers provides a ready-made base for aspiring third party candidates.

So it’s only natural that Maine’s Independent politicians would like to have their part in the renaissance of third-party candidates that is shaping up to be a defining factor in this year’s midterms. In Kansas, South Dakota, Colorado, and Alaska, among others, Independent and third-party candidates pose meaningful threats to their Democratic and Republican challengers.

The same dynamic exists in the three-way Maine gubernatorial race, which, thanks to the continued split between Maine Independents and Democrats, looks like it might very well result in the re-election of Republican Paul LePage, America’s craziest governor.

Recent polls have the Democratic candidate, Congressman Michael Michaud, maintaining a thin lead over LePage, 40 percent to 38 percent, with the Independent, Eliot Cutler, trailing well behind at 15 percent. (Others have Michaud and Culter polling slightly higher.) Twenty days ahead of Election Day, Republicans should be exceedingly pleased with these numbers. LePage, who should never have had a second shot at the governorship, now actually has a decent shot at winning.

And he knows it, because this is how he got elected the first time around. With every passing day, Maine’s gubernatorial race increasingly resembles that of 2010, when Cutler split the liberal vote with Democratic candidate Libby Mitchell, 36.5 percent to 19.2 percent, thereby handing victory to LePage.