Baldacci vs. Perry: Who has a weaker mandate?

[Verily]

Hard to say. I can't imagine most of the Green-Independent voters (that's the Maine Green-Independent Party, not the Green Party) would vote for a Republican, and the same is probably true of Carol Keeton Strayhorn's supporters. Merrill was a Democrat before mounting her Independent bid, so she probably took more from Democrats, much like Strayhorn, whereas Friedman probably took about evenly from populist Democrats and populist Republicans.

Adding that up:

Baldacci:
38%
+8% from LaMarche (80% support)
+12.6% from Merrill (60% support)
=58.6% support

Perry:
39%
+6% from Friedman (50% support)
+12.6% from Strayhorn (70% support)
=57.6% support

(I give LaMarche a wider margin than Strayhorn because Strayhorn might have been tolerable to some Democrats while LaMarche, as a Green-Independent, was unlikely to have attracted sizeable Republican support.)

Of course, there's also the issue in Texas, not present in Maine, that many Friedman voters may not have bothered voting at all had he not run. Since I'm assuming Friedman took equally from everyone, though, it wouldn't make a difference.

[Verily]

How does a green party candidate who was arrested for drunk driving get 10% when the party cannot do that well statewide in MA?

It is a real shame Kinky lost and by so much!

Any way, I think neither has a mandate, but if forced to choose I would say Baldacci has a weaker "mandate".

Maine has a strong Independent streak, and the Green Independent Party is well established. (They've won sizeable shares of the vote in every gubernatorial election since the early 90s.)

How did Eder manage to win 65% that one time? Was there something wrong with the Dem candidate that the Wiki doesn't mention?

The state Democrats had tried to gerrymander Eder out of his seat by separating his residence from his base of support. He moved back into the district where his support base was and was reelected in a landslide because the people were really pissed at the Democrats.