Maine Governor Candidate Says He Is Gay BOSTON - Michael H. Michaud, a Democrat who represents conservative, northern Maine in Congress and is a leading candidate for governor next year, announced in a newspaper column Monday that he is gay. Philip Scott Andrews/The New York Times Representative Michael H. Michaud, center, a Democrat, made his announcement on Monday in The Bangor Daily News. He said he wanted to address a whisper campaign from his opponents who urged voters to ask whether he is gay. "Allow me to save them the trouble with a simple, honest answer: "Yes, I am. But why should it matter?"" he wrote. That may seem like a big announcement to some people. For me, it's just a part of who I am, as much as being a third-generation millworker or a lifelong Mainer. Mr. Michaud, 58 and single, is the seventh openly gay member of Congress and one of two openly gay candidates - Heather R. Mizeur, a Democrat in Maryland, is the other - to seek a governorship. No state has elected an openly gay governor. James E. McGreevey, the former governor of New Jersey, announced in 2004 that he was "a gay American" on the day he resigned from office in a scandal. Mr. Michaud faces a three-way contest in Maine. Gov. Paul R. LePage, a Republican with Tea Party backing, is to announce the beginning of his re-election campaign on Tuesday. Eliot Cutler, an independent, is also running. Mr. Michaud has a slight lead in early polling. L. Sandy Maisel, a professor of government at Colby College, said that voters who would oppose Mr. Michaud because he is gay would probably back Mr. LePage anyway. Professor Maisel also said that Mr. Michaud's coming out could help him in at least two ways. It could help him raise money from the national network of gay groups. And it could prompt a second look at him by some of the state's liberal Democrats, including many young people, who were not supporting him. "He is not their kind of Democrat," Professor Maisel said. He's not articulate or charismatic. But this gives them a reason to come back to the Democratic Party. We have no data on that yet, but I know a lot of those people and they have been saying, "We don't like Michaud but we're afraid to vote for Cutler because it could give the race to LePage." " That is what happened in 2010. Many Democrats were unhappy with their nominee for governor and backed Mr. Cutler, which allowed Mr. LePage to win with 38 percent of the vote. Mr. Michaud, who is Roman Catholic, represents rural, conservative northern Maine. Last year, voters statewide approved same-sex marriage but his district voted against it. It was perhaps with an eye toward winning over voters in more liberal southern Maine that he wrote a newspaper column last month in which he sought to clarify his position on abortion, saying it had evolved over the years. "In the past, I have taken votes that I would not take today," he wrote. I'm proud to say I now have a 100 percent rating from Naral - the nation's leading organization for women's reproductive rights - as well as a 92 percent rating with Planned Parenthood.