AUBURN — Two men running for governor offered very different views of Maine on Wednesday night and traded personal barbs in the process.

Republican Bobby Charles, an attorney and former Naval Intelligence Officer, described a state dealing with fentanyl overdoses, large numbers of “illegal aliens,” failing schools, a bloated welfare budget and the significant presence of drug cartels.

“We are here because Maine is frankly in a state of peril,” Charles said.

During a debate in Auburn, he quickly blamed his opponent, former Democratic Senate President Troy Jackson, saying he’s been a legislator for 22 years and hasn’t fixed serious problems. 

Jackson said he wanted to debate Charles to call out what he considered to be “offensive, racist statements” particularly with regard to the city of Lewison and Somali immigrants.

“As someone that is a French Catholic, we’ve seen this type of race baiting rhetoric before,” Jackson said. “People that burned crosses on lands and things like that. That’s exactly what we don’t need in the next governor.”

The debate comes less than four months before Charles and Jackson will face members of their own parties for the right to run for governor in November.

It was an unusual event because at this stage in the process, forums and debates typically seek to highlight differences between candidates in each party to help voters make their decision on primary day, which is June 9. 

The debate also fell one day after new polling showed Charles ahead of the GOP pack with 28% support and Jackson sitting in third position in his primary at 16%, according to the University of New Hampshire Survey Center.

Throughout the debate, the men called each other hypocrites and accused each other of ethics violations.

On the issues, Jackson said he wants to create a fair tax system and help reduce local property taxes by providing more state funds to cities and towns.

He said he frequently clashed with Gov. Janet Mills, a fellow Democrat who vetoed several bills he sponsored, including measures designed to lower prescription drug costs. 

“We can do prescription drug coverage in this state and actually lower the cost of health care,” Jackson said.

Charles said he would eliminate the income tax over four years, rollback mandates on local cities and towns and reduce regulations on businesses.

He said the state needs to work closely with federal drug enforcement agents to drive drug trafficking out of the state.

“It’s hurting everybody,” he said. “People can’t walk their dogs. I’m going to fix it and work with the Democrats.” 

As he works to win over voters, Charles is facing several other candidates in the Republican primary including former Maine Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason, real estate developer David Jones of Falmouth, healthcare tech executive Jonathan Bush, state Sen. Jim Libby, businessman Owen McCarthy, former Planet Fitness CEO Ben Midgley and Robert Wessels of Paris.

In his closing remarks, Charles criticized Democratic spending on wind and solar projects and the size of the state budget.

“We have drug traffickers everywhere, we have addiction everywhere,” he said. “We have our schools failing and we have fraud in the state.”

On the Democratic side, Jackson is taking on former Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Nirav Shah, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, former House Speaker Hannah Pingree, businessman Angus King III and former FBI agent Jason Cherry. 

Jackson wrapped up by saying government will work better when leaders stop divisive rhetoric and work together.

“We have to be better than this and we have to stand together,” he said. “I think we can make Maine a much better state. We can become economically better. We can do things for our young people.”