LEWISTON — Before a group of about 70 supporters, many of them Twin Cities business leaders, gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler on Thursday made a stump stop at Baxter Brewing.

The downtown brewery appears to be a favorite location for Cutler, an independent from Cape Elizabeth. The stop was his second at the brewery since January.

“I don’t drink water well; I do much better with beer,” Cutler quipped, standing behind a podium made of 12-packs of Baxter beer.  

All joking aside, he noted that a poll released earlier this week showed him moving into the 20 percent range in the race for Maine governor. Still well behind his rivals, Democrat Mike Michaud with 37 percent and incumbent Republican Gov. Paul LePage with 39 percent, but well ahead of where Cutler was polling during the same time in 2010.

Cutler lost by less than 2 percent to LePage in 2010. He said that year his numbers never hit 20 percent until mid-September. 

“It’s April, folks,” he said to a round of applause. “We are not going to have the same problems we had (in 2010).”

Cutler outlined his plan to put Maine’s economy back on track by investing in public infrastructure, creating jobs and lowering property taxes, among other initiatives he’s proposed in recent weeks.

“Getting Maine’s economy recovering from 11 long years of year-by-year decline is the most important job Maine’s next governor is going to have,” Cutler said. He said eight years under a Democratic governor and three under a Republican have left Maine wages lagging far behind the rest of New England.

“Our incomes are 40 percent below the New England average and 25 percent below the national average,” Cutler said. “People are working two and three jobs just to get by. They bought fuel oil in five-gallon cans this winter because they couldn’t afford to buy more.”

He said the state had plenty of assets and people willing to move the economy forward, but the state’s sharply divided political environment was strangling progress.

“The political parties aren’t helping; they aren’t doing it,” he said. “They are just kicking the can down the road and are offering politics-as-usual choices in this election.”

He said two choices Republicans and Democrats were offering amounted to “what’s not working today and the other choice is what didn’t work before.”

Cutler said the two-party system was taking money from special interests and political action committees while treating Maine voters as though they didn’t notice and didn’t care.

“They think you are so accustomed now to failure that you can’t even grasp the possibility of success,” Cutler said. “I think they are wrong. I think you do care. I think you want a choice and I am determined to give Maine voters that choice this fall.”

He said Maine possessed the greatest assets of any state in the country in its natural resources and its people. “The second thing we have is an intensity of love for this state that you can’t find anywhere else in America, nowhere,” Cutler said. 

While dozens of local businesspeople turned out, many wearing Cutler campaign buttons or lapel stickers, few would go on the record to say the were openly backing the candidate. 

But Lucien Gosselin, the retiring president of the Lewiston-Auburn Economic Growth Council, said he was backing Cutler, as he did in 2010. Gosselin said he was a solid supporter because Cutler has the skills to do what he says he will do and move the state’s economy forward.

Others speaking for Cutler included former state Sen. John Nutting, a Democrat from Leeds. 

Nutting said he respected Cutler’s decision to refuse funding from political action committees. “Eliot, to his credit, has decided to fund his campaign from people and not from PACs,” Nutting said. “And our current governor with his comments about Vaseline and whatever else, I think, and I think a lot of you think, is making this state a laughingstock. It’s not promoting business.”

Nutting said it was impossible not to like Michaud, but he was taking his cues from big labor unions that were bankrolling his campaign.

“I would ask you one simple question,” Nutting said in a plea for campaign donations. “If not you, who? Who is going to step forward, until it hurts a little bit?”

Also speaking for Cutler was Mike Malloy, a local lawyer and Auburn resident, who said he was backing Cutler and wasn’t afraid to say so.

He said partisan politicians and their overused talking points had worn thin on him. Cutler, Malloy said, “Has his own ideas.”

One policy point Malloy likes is Cutler’s so-called “pay it forward, pay it back” plan that would see the state help with university tuition for those who stay and work in Maine after graduation, with the promise to pay back that tuition so the next group of students can enjoy the same benefit.

It could be a key initiative to help keep well-educated and well-trained young people in the state. Maine’s aging demographic and under-trained workforce is often cited by businesses that decide not to locate here, Malloy said.

“I can’t try to stay impartial,” Malloy said. “What do we have to lose?”

Malloy said LePage had only fostered the partisan divide in Augusta, and Malloy believes Cutler would be able to build coalitions of Democrats and Republicans to craft meaningful compromises to make Maine stronger.

Malloy said Mainers should demand that their political leaders work together, and Cutler would demand that, too.

Brent Littlefield, a LePage political adviser, said the governor had a record he was proud of when it came to economic development and had created 16,000 private-sector jobs since taking office.

“Neither liberal politician Eliot Cutler or Michael Michaud have created jobs,” Littlefield said. “Gov. LePage has spent his lifetime creating jobs. Maine has its lowest unemployment rate since 2008; over 7,000 jobs are currently available in the Maine job bank waiting for people to take them and national publications have said Maine is on the move economically.”

Michaud’s campaign spokeswoman, Lizzy Reinholt, said Maine voters were tired of LePage’s “negativity.”

“And now we are seeing the same thing from Eliot Cutler,” Reinholt said. “Congressman Michaud is the only candidate in the race with a proven track record of bringing people together to solve problems for the people of Maine.” 

sthistle@sunjournal.com