LEWISTON — Mayoral candidate Larry Gilbert attacked Mayor Robert Macdonald again and again during a candidate forum Thursday, accusing him of denigrating the city around the state.

“The mayor is supposed to be the ambassador of the city,” Gilbert said. “In other words, you speak well of your city. You don’t focus on the blemishes or the struggles that you’re having. Because if that is all you project, that’s all the people will see.”

Gilbert, a former mayor seeking a new term, returned to that theme many times at the forum, hosted and sponsored by the Lewiston Youth Advisory Council at Lewiston City Hall.

“So, who wants to come to a city that is divided, where all you do is talk about layabouts, morons, do-nothings and welfare collectors?” Gilbert asked. “Who wants to come to a community like that?”

Macdonald said he gladly discusses negative issues because that’s the only way to solve them.

“Maybe I do talk about layabouts and welfare reform, but maybe that’s what people are looking for,” Macdonald said. “I didn’t invent the ‘Dirty Lew.’ All the time (Gilbert) was in there, that’s what the city was called. So I’m divisive? You’re not divisive when you bring problems to the front.”

It’s the third time the two men have shared the stage this month in forums leading up to the Nov. 5 municipal election.

Macdonald said most of the complaints that he is negative and a divider come from the Maine People’s Alliance, the state advocacy group he blamed for protests early in his term. He blamed out-of-town agitators for leading the protests, not local Somali residents.

“The only people that came up and and picketed me were from the Maine People’s Alliance,” Macdonald said. “How do I know that? Because your elders, Somali elders, came in and told me they had nothing to do with that.”

Jim Lysen, a member of the Maine People’s Alliance, said that was a lie and that the group was seeking to help Lewiston Somalis.

“When you are quoted telling people to ‘leave their culture at the door,’ on the BBC, it deserves a response,” Lysen said.

Macdonald said the group and Gilbert were linked.

“This election offers the citizens of Lewiston a very clear choice,” Macdonald said in his closing statement. “Whose voice will be responsible for the direction the city follows over the next two years? Will we have the voice of businesses and taxpayers or of community activist groups and the tax-takers? This is what you have to decide on Nov. 5.”

Macdonald said the city is making significant improvements, especially along Lisbon Street. He pointed to Argo Marketing’s renovation of the McCrory’s department store building as a significant achievement.

“We have 250 jobs there,” Macdonald said. “And there is more. There is other stuff in the mix. People are very interested in developing here.”

Gilbert said the city can do better than call-center jobs such as Argo Marketing.

“We need jobs that pay a living wage, and marketing jobs, telephone jobs, don’t pay very well,” Gilbert said. “They say they have access to health benefits, but they don’t provide them. So we need to drive jobs in here from outside that pay a good, living wage and provide benefits.”

Both agreed it’s time to put the question of combining Lewiston and Auburn on the ballot before voters.

“We need to let the people decide once and for all if we want to join the cities, merge the cities or just work collaboratively,” Gilbert said.

Macdonald said a combined Twin Cities is the way to go.

“If you really want to survive and you want to come back to something that’s really as good as Portland or better, that’s combining the two cities,” Macdonald said.

All Lewiston candidates will get one more chance to make an impression at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29, at the C & J Hall, 711 Webster St., at a forum sponsored by the Lewiston/Auburn Landlords Association.

staylor@sunjournal.com

Election coverage:

• Lewiston mayoral race
• Larry Gilbert
• Bob Macdonald