Hamel, Michaud spar over pair of ‘misleading’ ads

BANGOR – Although the contest’s first debate ended just hours before, 2nd Congressional District contenders Democratic Rep. Mike Michaud and Republican Brian Hamel kept the barbs flying Wednesday over a pair of television ads each said was misleading.

Hamel called on the incumbent to pull his latest ad, which criticizes Hamel’s record while heading the Loring Development Authority, the agency charged with redeveloping the former Air Force base in Limestone.

The ad accuses Hamel of canceling “a promised $19 a week pay raise for his employees,” in 1998 while collecting a $120,000 salary.

Part of the claim does appear to be inaccurate, based on a review of the record. While Hamel’s salary figure is correct, LDA employees did receive a 2.5 percent raise that year, as reported in the Bangor Daily News. Based on the average salary of $39,600, that would be $19 a week.

Employees however did not receive a share of a separate, discretionary $25,000 incentive fund set aside for those who go “above and beyond the call of duty,” according to the NEWS report cited in the Michaud ad.

“No promise was broken,” Hamel said in a statement.

Monica Castellanos stood by the general premise of the ad, noting that while Hamel chose not to disperse the incentive money to his employees, the LDA budget included $12,000 in incentives for Hamel. Hamel’s annual bonus was tied to the number of new jobs created at LDA, according to Hamel campaign officials.

“Maybe a raise or a bonus is something Mr. Hamel can’t understand, driving around in his taxpayer-funded [sport utility vehicle], but to a working class family, that bonus is a utility bill,” she said.

The Michaud ad also claims Hamel “spent $40 million of our tax dollars but delivered just a fifth of the jobs he promised.”

Indeed, Hamel did spend $40 million in state and federal dollars at Loring and created about 1,200 jobs, about one-fifth of the goal of 5,500 jobs cited in a 1995 LDA report. Hamel campaign officials say the goal was part of a long-range plan extending through 2014.

“The only thing Michaud got right was that Brian Hamel created jobs,” said Hamel’s campaign manager, Ben Golnik.

Hamel’s complaints come on the heels of similar objections made by the Michaud camp regarding the most recent Hamel ad, which claims the freshman Democrat backed tax increases that hit “working families hard.”

Upon the ad’s airing, Castellanos released a statement saying, “Regardless of Mr. Hamel’s desperate attacks, Congressman Michaud will continue to support targeted tax cuts and other policies that help working families in Maine.”

Castellanos said the Hamel ad suggests Michaud should have supported the broad-based tax cuts by the Bush administration. Michaud instead supported tax cuts designed to help low- and middle-income people, she said.