LEWISTON — In a television advertisement released Thursday, Eliot Cutler, the independent candidate in the Maine governor’s race, again challenges his opponents to debate the issues with him.

Cutler is facing Republican Gov. Paul LePage and Maine’s 2nd District Congressman Mike Michaud, the Democrat in the race.

The advertisement, the second this week launched by Cutler’s team, features the candidate in an empty auditorium with two empty podiums with the names Michaud and LePage on them. Cutler is standing behind a podium with his name.

His campaign has made repeated calls for debates and at one point suggested the candidates hold one debate in each of Maine’s 16 counties.

Cutler said in the advertisement that during the 2010 governor’s race there were more than 30 debates.

The Michaud campaign has said he will participate only in the debates that LePage has agreed to because they don’t consider Cutler to be their main opponent.

Michaud’s campaign has questioned Cutler’s viability as a candidate, although in 2010 Cutler was a close second to LePage. That year, there were five candidates and no incumbent in the race.  

But Michaud’s campaign has pointed to Cutler’s lackluster polling numbers in 2014. Every voter poll completed this year suggests Cutler is a distant third with less than 20 percent of the vote, while polls suggest Michaud and LePage each have close to 40 percent of the vote.

Several Maine political science and elections scholars have said it makes no sense strategically for an incumbent or front-runner to risk too many debates.

Christian Potholm, a political science professor at Bowdoin College with 40 years of political polling experience, told the Sun Journal in May he’s never seen a debate change a candidate’s polling position.  

Potholm, who has also worked on statewide campaigns in the past, said he would recommend the candidates do one or two televised debates statewide and leave it at that.

Others have also suggested that voters aren’t as interested in debates as the candidates may be, and any more than four debates is plenty.

Meanwhile, University of Maine at Farmington political science professor and author Jim Melcher said it’s nearly standard practice for an independent candidate to clamor for more debates as a way to gain validity.

So far, LePage and Michaud have agreed to between five and six debates in October, just weeks before Election Day, Nov. 4.

In the 30-second spot released Thursday, Cutler took a swipe at LePage and Michaud.

“Gov. LePage doesn’t want early debates because his record is indefensible,” Cutler said.  “And Congressman Michaud, he’s changed his position on the issues so many times, it’s hard to keep track.”

Cutler again raises the issue of early voting by absentee ballot, suggesting his opponents want to postpone holding any debates until many have already cast their ballots. He instructs viewers to tell the other two candidates that they won’t vote until after the debates.  

“Maine needs debates before you vote, tell them you are going to wait for debates,” Cutler said.

In the closing line of the ad, Cutler asks viewers, “If they don’t have the courage to debate, how will they ever have the courage to lead?”

Alex Willette, a spokesman for LePage’s campaign, said the governor was looking forward to the fall debates.

“The Cutler campaign is grasping at straws,” Willette said of the new television spot. “Gov. LePage has been busy this summer meeting with voters all over Maine and he is excited about the opportunity to debate his opponents in October.”

Michaud’s campaign said again Thursday that they have six debates on the schedule while Willette said the governor’s campaign had only confirmed five debates.

The first confirmed debate among the three is set for Oct. 8 in Portland hosted by the Portland Chamber of Commerce. The last is set for Oct. 21 hosted by WMTW and CNN’s Debate Night in America.

sthistle@sunjournal.com