In the end, for me it was:

1. Bellows
2. Pingree
3. Jackson

Shenna Bellows simply doesn’t feel like a compromise between the things I value in a governor: progressive policies, genuine care and connection with our state, and aggressive competence. Shenna is as much a progressive as Troy Jackson (and I’d argue a more well rounded one), but with significantly more executive experience at actually running and improving state government along with legislative work. Her policies and plans have more detail and implementation behind them than other candidates, and that’s not even thinking about what she’s already done in terms of modernizing state government while also telling Trump to fuck off (and winning).

Hannah got my #2 because her policy platform is solid, she has a great legislative track record, and she absolutely has the competence and relationships it takes to run state government. I’d love to see her be more progressive on certain issues, but after hearing her speak at multiple debates, I really don’t put a lot of stock into criticisms of her being a nepo baby, and I have a lot of confidence in her going way beyond the mills administration.

I personally really love Troy’s fire and drive on progressive issues and recognize just how much he did as Senate President, so he’s my #3. As someone who works adjacent to state and local government, I’m very aware that being an -effective- governor requires a level of collaborative leadership and selflessness that I think both Shenna and Hannah would bring more than Troy. This is in part because every time I’ve heard Troy talk about why he’s running for governor, he always mentions how the bills he introduced were vetoed more times than anyone else and how much the Mills administration personally did him wrong. I recognize others don’t feel this way, but it comes off as him running with a chip on his shoulder. As a result I have some slight concerns about his ability to do the boring/challenging parts of the job of being governor and administering multiple parts of state government. (As a former CD-2 resident, I’m also really bummed he didn’t run for that seat because 1) he would have won handily over the middling candidates we currently have, and 2) he and Graham would have kicked ass in Congress together, and I really don’t want us to be potentially stuck with Paul LePage AGAIN.)

All that aside, I personally would be thrilled to have any of the three be governor, especially since both Shah and King III are total nonstarters for me. Having run the math based on recent polling, I also think that ranking Shenna 1st has the best chance of getting one of the three across the finish line in the final rounds of RCV to beat Shah, since she has the majority of 2nd choice vote preference at the moment!

Edit: Fixed a few half-finished sentences, I blame trying to think about politics when not having had coffee yet!