AUGUSTA, Maine — After more than a year of build-up and some controversy about whether they’d happen at all, the five gubernatorial debates in this year’s campaign are about to slide into history. Election Day, Nov. 4, is two weeks away, so Tuesday evening’s televised debate is likely the last time Republican Gov. Paul LePage, Democrat Mike Michaud and independent Eliot Cutler will speak to Maine voters from the same stage before those voters elect the man who will serve as governor for the next four years.
[bdntwitter handle=”storytiller”]
About Monday night
— The WGME/Bangor Daily News debate offered another hour of interesting and memorable exchanges between Michaud, LePage and independent Cutler. You can view video of the event here at the BDN’s website.
— The dynamics of Monday’s debate changed markedly from last week’s Maine State Chamber of Commerce event. Michaud, who spent much of the previous debate on the defensive, fared better on Monday and was well-prepared with counter-arguments and scripted zingers, such as this one to LePage: “You’re one of the best politicians I’ve ever seen. You know the issues that divide Mainers … you don’t know how to bring people together.”
— LePage may have faltered a bit compared to his strong performances in earlier debates. He appeared a bit rattled by some of the jabs from Michaud. When he said making $100,000 a year is “not that rich,” which it isn’t, it instantly became ammunition for his opponents, including the Maine Democratic Party, which highlighted the comment in a statement Tuesday morning.
— Cutler was much less combative than he was last week, when some political observers noted that he came across as pompous or arrogant. On Monday, he used a more measured tone and focused on the time-worn central message of his campaign: Those other two guys, unlike me, are divisive partisans who will put party loyalty before the best interests of Maine people.
Issues that voters need to hear more about
— Welfare reform. There has been a lot of talk among the candidates about welfare reform in the past year, mostly because LePage’s focus on changing Maine’s public assistance programs over the past year has made it a campaign issue that has resonated with wide swaths of voters. However, there has been little discussion of welfare reform during the televised debates, which is when many Mainers begin paying attention to elections. There is disagreement about how prevalent waste, fraud and abuse are within the state’s social services system. All three candidates have detailed plans that voters need to know more about because adjustments in these areas have real and immediate impacts on the state budget and its most vulnerable citizens. However, the candidates have spent little time addressing each other on the issue during the four previous debates.
— Equal pay, reproductive rights, women’s health care. These are more issues that have received relatively short shrift in televised debates and, to some degree, during the campaign. The relationship between the gender pay gap and poverty has been a focal point for advocacy groups such as Planned Parenthood, which has taken a much more active role in this election. The group’s political arm, the Planned Parenthood Maine Action Fund, on Monday raised the issue with a Twitter post, which was retweeted dozens of times: “Nearly 54,000 Maine homes headed by women; approx. 31% have incomes below poverty level. Plan to fix the wage gap?” The campaigns and their surrogates have made overtures to women voters, but those efforts have rarely gone beyond talk of the three men’s past and current positions on abortion.
— Jobs and the economy. There is probably no other issue that has been the subject of more attention on the campaign trail or the debate stage, but it deserves it. Three of Maine’s paper mills have announced closures in the past nine months and Maine’s job creation in the wake of the Great Recession is lagging most other states. LePage has gone after labor unions throughout his first term and maintains that making Maine a “right to work state,” meaning unions would not be allowed to collect fees for collective bargaining and similar services, remains among his priorities. Voters need to hear more from the candidates about the balance between unions as protectors of workers’ rights and entities that make big corporations locate elsewhere. This issue is especially important now, with FairPoint Communications workers on strike in Maine.
