Sen. Angus King’s former communications director has joined the Eliot Cutler-for-governor campaign.

Crystal Canney, a former TV journalist in Portland, will join Cutler as a consultant and head up all campaign communications, including media relations and social media strategy, the campaign announced Monday.

Canney had done the same thing for King when the former governor ran for U.S. Senate last year. Canney stepped down as King’s communications director last month.

Both King and Cutler are independents, and have been political allies. King endorsed Cutler shortly before the 2010 gubernatorial election, a last-minute boost that helped get Cutler within about one percentage point of Gov. Paul LePage.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, a new independent poll put Democratic Congressman Mike Michaud in the lead of the governor’s race with 11 months to go before Election Day.

The poll, from Pan Atlantic SMS Group, says Michaud has 37 percent of the vote, compared to 36 percent for LePage and 18 percent for Cutler.

The telephone interview poll was conducted the last week of November. The poll includes a sample of 400 Maine residents and has a margin of error of 4.9 percent.

John Richardson can be contacted at 791-6324 or at:

jrichardson@pressherald.com