Politics
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Republican gubernatorial candidate Bobby Charles is coming under increasing fire from opponents within the party after a yearlong campaign that has seized grassroots attention.
At a WMTW debate Tuesday — the first of two debates Charles plans to skip this week — multiple candidates singled out the lawyer and former lobbyist federal official from the opening statements on issues from not taking the stage to a virtually impossible promise to slash the state budget by $4 billion. Charles cast his rivals as weak liberals or Augusta insiders.
The increasingly harsh attacks between the Republicans have reshaped a crowded primary just one month away. Aiming to flip the Blaine House after eight years under Gov. Janet Mills, anti-Charles Republicans are painting him as too divisive to win a Democratic-leaning state, although it’s unclear whether the rest of the field has time to chase him down.
“Bobby has a lot of criticism coming to him,” said Assistant Maine Senate Minority Leader Matt Harrington, R-Sanford, who is married to Lauren LePage, a strategist for Charles rival Ben Midgley. “He seems willing to jump on any hand grenade to win this primary, with no regard to what it’s going to do to his chances in the general.”
The attacks come after Charles has led primary polls and topped a Maine GOP convention poll last weekend. But there hasn’t been a public survey on the race in almost two months.
Charles has fired up supporters with a social media-heavy campaign. He has barely purchased TV ads. Lobbyist and former Maine Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason and entrepreneur Jonathan Bush have benefited from outside help and millions in ads. Midgley, who won a non-scientific poll that stirred infighting last month, has loaned his campaign at least $750,000.
Real estate executive David Jones, who was booed after launching a last-minute attack on Charles during a March debate in Bangor, used his opening statement Tuesday to share disappointment that Charles didn’t show.
“His absence is a pattern we all see,” he said.
The other major candidates piled on in the debate and afterward. Bush in a Wednesday morning news release said it was time for Charles to “come out of the Joe Biden bunker.” He said Charles failed at “the only non-lobbying job he’s had in the last 27 years,” citing a Bangor Daily News report on federal audits of State Department work in the Middle East on Charles’ watch.
A political action committee backing Bush released an ad featuring AI-generated video depicting former President Barack Obama patting Charles’ shoulder as the Republican held a pile of cash in a reference to his firm’s federal contracts during the Democrat’s administration. (The pro-Bush group is funded by Democratic donors who are associates of the candidate.)
“Maine voters deserve a governor who is present, accountable, and willing to stand in front of them and answer questions,” Mason, who has gotten millions of dollars in help from Republican megadonors, said in a statement after the debate. “Voters are still trying to figure out who [Charles] is and whether his record matches what he’s saying on the campaign trail.”
Midgley was not as pointed in his criticism. But during the debate he said Charles’ proposed budget cuts were unreasonable. A statement he posted on social media Wednesday included the promise, “I will always show up.”
Businessman Robert Wessels and entrepreneur Owen McCarthy said they stood out from the pack without directly going after Charles in the debate. Wessels, who did not qualify for a Thursday debate hosted by CBS News 13 and the Bangor Daily News, will appear on video with Charles that day. Charles plans to attend a debate next week.
Charles, whose campaign did not respond to a request for comment, targeted Bush, Mason and Midgley in a sharply-worded statement posted on Facebook. He noted Bush’s history of criticizing President Donald Trump, referenced Midgley’s past as a Democrat before switching parties in 2015 and blasted Mason as an Augusta insider.
“If the insiders want to attack me, that’s fine,” he said. “I’ll keep fighting for the people of Maine.
Doug Thomas, a former state senator from Ripley who supports Charles, shrugged off the ramped-up criticism of the candidate. He described Midgley, McCarthy and Bush as good people, summing up the drama as “just politics” among a solid field.
“It doesn’t matter at all,” he said. “Bobby hasn’t changed his positions … he’s still got the most courage and still the best man for the job. If you’re the frontrunner, you’ve got to expect people to be snipping at your heels.”
