Eliot Cutler, the independent candidate in Maine’s gubernatorial race, continued his onslaught against incumbent Gov. Paul LePage’s record on economic development and jobs but also charged LePage and Mike Michaud, the Democrat in the race, of abandoning the mill towns of Millinocket and East Millinocket following the bankruptcy filing of the Great Northern Paper Co. earlier this week.

Michaud is Maine’s 2nd District U.S. Congressman and a former employee of Great Northern Paper Co.

Cutler, who visited with residents of the region during a stop at Millinocket cafe on Friday, said he went to the Katahdin Region largely because residents there were in a scary situation with few jobs and winter approaching and, more than anything, needed somebody to listen to their concerns.

He also said LePage had failed to lead or help in any meaningful way despite his efforts to work with Cate Street Capital and the company it formed to run Great Northern’s mills, GNP Holdings LLC.

Cutler, who spent time in the area earlier this year said he went back Friday after rearranging his schedule, largely because he felt it was the right thing to do.

“I went up there, not so much because I have any answers, I don’t have all the answers or even many of them,” Cutler said. “But because I think (people there) feel incredibly abandoned and isolated in that they haven’t heard from Michaud, they really haven’t heard from LePage except LePage just defends this company that went bankrupt.”

Cutler said the needs in the region where unemployment is approaching 30 percent were both, “emergent and long-term.

“At the least, they needed someone to come and listen to them,” Cutler said.

In February, Great Northern laid off 212 of its 256 employees, throwing the region, which is heavily dependent on the paper industry jobs, into an economic tailspin.

Cutler vowed he would develop an economic development plan and personally lead the effort to revitalize the region’s economy if he were elected governor. He said that plan would focus on what people in the region wanted for their community but would also depend on forest products and increased tourism.

Cutler said the region was ripe with potential and that he would, within a week of becoming governor, be “personally leading” an effort to reshape the region’s economy for the long-term.

On Friday, David Farmer, a spokesman for East Millinocket native Michaud, said Cutler was politicizing the misfortunes of people in the region.

He said efforts to get new investors to buy the paper mills and get them back open were ongoing and that Michaud did not want discourage that.

“East Millinocket is Mike’s home,” Farmer said. “He worked 29 years in that mill, those are his friends, his family and his neighbors and he is not going to do anything or say anything to jeopardize the reopening of those mills.”

Farmer said Michaud was also not going to “politicize” the problems in the region.

“Because to politicize it, to make it a chess piece in some election strategy, is going to scare potential investors off, whose business model does not include getting involved in a gubernatorial election,” Farmer said.

In the past, Cutler has been critical of Cate Street and LePage’s work with the company, including the state’s involvement and financial support in an effort to bring a high-energy torrefied wood pellet mill to the region.

“LePage brought Cate Street in here and it’s been one of the biggest failures in state history,” Cutler said again Friday.

Cutler said Friday the global economy of today is far different than it was when Maine’s paper mills were in their heyday. But he also said he believed the state would continue to be making paper long after he was dead.

“This area needs attention, it needs attention immediately to solve their immediate problems. Winter is coming and fuel oil is expensive and the people are unemployed and its scary,” Cutler said. “And they need attention in planning for an economy that’s different, that’s going to look different in the future than it does today. They need leadership and they need help. I’ve promised to be there and I will be there.”

He said the message people in the region needed to hear was that, “other people in Maine and that state leaders care.”

Alex Willette, a spokesman for LePage’s campaign, also said Cutler was trying politicize the situation and that LePage was hard at work.

“While Eliot Cutler is out and about trying to the political thing, Gov. LePage is fighting every day to bring Maine’s economy forward,” Willette said.

He said the Katahdin Region as much as anywhere needed lower energy costs, and bringing the state lower energy costs has been a key focus for LePage.

“Gov. LePage is still speaking with potential buyers of the facility and trying to prevent the Chapter 7 from going completely through and he won’t give up,” Willette said.

Michaud on Friday also issued a statement from his Congressional offices in Washington on the bankruptcy filing. In the statement, he said he had just returned to East Millinocket on Thursday night.

“As I drove by the mill, my heart just broke,” Michaud wrote.

He said the region’s sad story touched him deeply but the story of declining manufacturing in Maine was not new and federal trade policy was partially to blame.

“We’ve made some progress, but changing international trade policy is a long process — and my community can’t afford to wait,” Michaud wrote in part. “I will continue to do everything I can to secure federal support for the region. I say this not because I’m an elected official — I say it because we’re talking about my home town, and an institution that employed generations of my own family. We have a tough road ahead of us, but I know that if we all continue having each other’s backs, we can only emerge from this challenge stronger.”

sthistle@sunjournal.com