Paul LePage Declares Victory in Maine, Announces 20-Hour Nap, Leaves Counting to Maine

BANGOR, Maine — Paul LePage has won Maine’s 2nd Congressional District. He has the word of one source on this, and the source is Paul LePage.

The former governor declared victory just after 2 p.m. Wednesday at a press conference at Sea Dog Brewing in Bangor, the Maine Morning Star reported. No outlet had called the race. The Associated Press had not. Neither had anyone else.

“The public numbers have us up about four thousand, and we, the team, has been calling all the towns that haven’t come in yet, and there is no path to victory for my opponent,” LePage said.

Then he announced his next act. “Now I’m going home to sleep, I’m going to sleep for the next 20 hours,” he said. He told reporters he had been “dead tired” Tuesday night.

That is a full schedule. He won the election, and then he scheduled a nap. In Washington this is called a transition plan.

The count did not attend

Maine kept counting anyway. At 3:58 p.m. Eastern, NBC News had LePage ahead 50.3 percent to 49.7 percent over Democrat Matt Dunlap. About 32,000 votes were still out.

The AP had it closer, 50.1 percent to 49.9 percent with 89 percent counted, according to the Morning Star. Dunlap would need 52.8 percent of what remains to catch up, NBC News calculated.

The decimal points matter here. A write-in candidate, Gregory Ward, is on the ballot. With a declared write-in in the race, someone has to clear 50 percent of the total, or it goes to a ranked-choice runoff, the Morning Star noted.

The Secretary of State’s office had not said whether a runoff would be needed. With so few votes between the two men, a recount is likely, the Morning Star reported.

The other side of the podium

Dunlap, the state auditor, has not conceded. He issued a statement instead of a nap.

“Maine has the most reliable elections staff in the world, and I want to thank them as they diligently finish the count,” Dunlap said. “This race is very close and there are plenty of ballots left to count.”

“In this town a race is over when a candidate says so, and it is called when the count says so,” said Deep Throat Lozenge, this bureau’s most trusted source. “Those used to be the same afternoon.”

The only one

There is a national angle, and it is a lonely one. Democrats have flipped 35 Republican-held House seats so far, by NBC News’ count.

If LePage holds on, Maine’s 2nd could be the only district in the country where Republicans flipped a seat, the Morning Star reported. The seat is held now by Democrat Jared Golden, who did not run again.

LePage said he is ready for a Democratic House. “I will work with anybody to help make this country a better country,” he said.

He will start after the nap.

One candidate went to bed a winner. The other went to bed a candidate. Maine’s town clerks did not go to bed, and they are the only ones whose work decides which of the two men was right.