BANGOR – Citing a potential distraction to voters, AARP officials on Friday said they would drop their challenge to Maine Republican Party television ads that they claim improperly suggested the seniors group “pulled its support” from 2nd Congressional District candidate Mike Michaud.

“We are not going to pursue it any further,” said AARP Maine communications director Shelley Dunn after consulting with colleagues at the group’s national headquarters in Washington, D.C.

“We want the voters to be able to concentrate on the issues and get on with what we think is more important,” continued Dunn, adding that the group would instead stress to voters its nonpartisan stance.

The decision comes just three days after AARP attorneys warned the Republicans not to use the seniors group’s name in any campaign promotions.

Specifically, AARP objected to a GOP ad that criticizes Michaud, now the state senate president pro tempore, for a 1999 vote to tax some Social Security benefits.

“The multiple use of the AARP name in this ad creates the impression that the AARP has ‘pulled it support’ from Michael Michaud,” the group’s attorney said in a news release earlier this week. “The ad is at best misleading and at worst, false.”

The 1999 vote has dogged the Michaud campaign for weeks, with his Republican opponent Kevin Raye, a former aide to U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, raising the issue at all four recent debates.

Maine GOP officials had contended that the ad was clear in pointing out that the AARP pulled its support not from Michaud, but the legislation he supported.

“We’re pleased that [the AARP decision] will allow the voters to focus on the real issues,” Maine Republican Party communications director Cynthia Bergman said Friday. “And one of those issues is Mike Michaud’s unfortunate vote to tax Mainers’ Social Security benefits.”

The 1999 bill that passed the Taxation Committee would have taxed a portion of Social Security benefits for those earning a total of more than $25,000 a year.

The legislation would not have affected those who received Social Security alone, the maximum annual benefit of which is about $20,000.

The bill, which would have brought the Maine tax into conformity with the federal tax code, was designed to equalize state income taxes on public pensions. Mainers, such as teachers and state workers, who receive public pensions, are required to pay taxes on their benefits while Social Security recipients are not.

The federal government, as the result of a 1993 law, does tax some Social Security benefits.

Michaud’s press secretary Monica Castellanos said Friday the AARP’s first reaction to the GOP ad was more telling than its later decision not to pursue the objection.

“The initial response said it all,” Castellanos said. “And it’s clear that Raye doesn’t have a record of his own to run on except a record of distortion.”

Earlier this week, Raye had asked the party to clarify the ad, which was replaced Friday with a new spot again criticizing Michaud for the vote, but without mention of the AARP.