A poll conducted over the weekend by Raleigh, N.C., firm Public Policy Polling shows Democratic Rep. Mike Michaud leading the 2014 gubernatorial race by about 4 points.

Michaud polled at 39 percent, edging current Republican Gov. Paul LePage, who polled at 35 percent, and independent candidate Eliot Cutler, who polled at 18 percent.

Cutler has dropped 8 points since the last PPP poll in Maine, while Michaud has climbed 9 points. That poll, conducted in January, had LePage at 34 percent, Michaud at 30 percent and Cutler at 26 percent.

Other findings:

• 47 percent of Mainers believe the governor told GOP donors that President Barack Obama “hates white people.”  Meanwhile, 30 percent believe he did not say it. Perhaps more interestingly, 20 percent of Mainers believe the sentiment of LePage’s alleged comment, telling pollsters that they agree the president hates white people. 66 percent don’t believe that.
• The poll showed that 62 percent of Mainers believe LePage brings “national embarrassment” to the state, while only 33 percent disagree with that.

PPP surveyed 953 Maine voters over the weekend. The poll has a margin or error of +/- 3.2 percent. The polling firm has a house effect weighted toward Democrats, which means it has a systematic tendency to favor Democrats. Polling analyst wizard Nate Silver blogged about house effects last year, and it’s worth a read. (HT to Emily Shaw for reminding me of Silver’s piece).

You can see the full results of the poll here. Keep checking bangordailynews.com for a more complete story on this poll.