AUBURN, Maine — Not much new ground was covered during the last of five scheduled gubernatorial debates Tuesday, but each of the three candidates ran with their last chance to get their message before a statewide audience.
The final debate, broadcast live statewide on WMTW and WABI, saw more sharply honed versions of attacks delivered in the previous four outings.
Republican Gov. Paul LePage came under attack from Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud near the outset of the hourlong debate. On Monday, during a CBS 13/BDN debate in Portland, LePage told Michaud that an annual salary of $100,000 was “not that rich.”
Democrats spent the next 24 hours using the quote to paint LePage as out of touch with the average Mainer, hoping to tap into national unease over wealth inequality. Only about 16 percent of Mainers make $100,000 per year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
LePage has long used his impoverished, hardscrabble upbringing to show his populist roots, and Michaud attempted to turn it into a weakness.
“Last night you said someone making $100,000 is not a lot of money. Tell that to a logger in Jackman or Fort Kent, who’s barely getting by making $42,000 per year without health insurance,” he said. “You’ve struggled, as you mentioned in your opening opening remarks, but clearly you’ve forgotten where you come from.”
The candidates were asked what they considered to be a living wage. LePage said $20 per hour — about $42,000 per year — was enough. Michaud and independent candidate Eliot Cutler each said about $50,000 to $60,000 would be a living wage in Maine.
Not deterred, though, LePage doubled down on his “not that rich” comment.
“I don’t think it’s off mark,” he said of the previous night’s comment. “I don’t think it’s wealthy. I really don’t. I will say $50,000 is half as much as $100,000. I defy anyone to tell me that if you make $100,000 and you have two kids going to college, and you’re trying to get them a good start in life, that it’s a lot of money.”
Cutler once again pounced on Michaud for not having a plan to pay for his campaign promise to increase state funding for education to the 55 percent threshold approved in a 2004 statewide referendum. Doing so would require finding tens of millions of dollars in an already shallow state revenue stream.
Michaud continually dodged the question, saying only that “budgets are about priorities.” The congressman, a former chairman of the Maine Legislature’s budget-writing committee, said he would find a way to fund his proposal, but it wouldn’t be on Day One.
Unsatisfied, Cutler and moderator Paul Merrill continued to push Michaud for more specifics, but they never came.
Cutler has spent much of the previous four debates bashing Michaud for his lack of specifics, saying candidates must treat voters like adults by giving detailed explanations of how they’d pay for their proposals. Cutler’s plan calls for increasing the state’s sales tax to pay for increased education funding.
Cutler was largely unbruised in the fifth and final debate, while LePage and Michaud continuing their largely one-on-one attack on each other. However, Cutler’s relationship with LePage was the subject of a question by CNN’s chief congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, who was on hand for the debate.
Bash asked Cutler whether his candidacy propped up LePage, citing the “bromance” between the two candidates, as described by Democrats and their allies. Groups such as American Bridge, a liberal super-PAC, have seized on videos of LePage and Cutler high fiving and otherwise acting friendly in previous debates to promote the theme that LePage — with high unfavorability ratings — cannot win re-election unless Cutler and Michaud split the anti-LePage vote.
Both Cutler and LePage denied any such relationship.
“I think he would agree that we do not have a bromance,” Cutler said.
Tuesday’s proceedings largely stuck to questions that have been asked and answered many times in the tightly packed debate schedule, which saw five such forums in less than two weeks.
Candidates reiterated their stances on Medicaid expansion — LePage is against it, Cutler and Michaud are for it. Michaud once again defended his “evolution” toward the Democratic Party’s pro-choice, pro-gay marriage stance. Cutler continued to offer himself as an alternative to partisan gridlock and bickering, and LePage once again attempted to cast Michaud as a liar.
That last jab came after Michaud criticized LePage for proposing to suspend state aid to towns and cities, a cut municipal officials and Democrats say was responsible for property tax spikes that hit Maine homeowners’ wallets. LePage has long maintained that service consolidation and municipal belt-tightening could have prevented the tax hikes.
“This man doesn’t know what honesty is, that’s all I can tell you,” LePage said, gesturing toward the Democrat.
“It’s unfortunate the governor feels that way,” replied Michaud. But “what the governor says is anything, whether it’s factual or not.”
One new question involved how the candidates would deal with Ebola. Cutler and Michaud criticized LePage for leaving vacant the state’s top epidemiology positions. LePage countered by saying he did not want to unnecessarily frighten Maine residents and that state health and emergency management officials were meeting daily to ensure proper protocols are in place..
Tuesday’s debate was the last scheduled to feature all three gubernatorial candidates. A final debate, hosted by Maine Public Broadcasting Network, is scheduled for Thursday evening at Husson University’s Gracie Theater, but only Cutler has agreed to attend.
With the debates behind them, the three candidates say they plan to spend the next two weeks hitting the campaign trail.
Follow Mario Moretto on Twitter at @riocarmine.
