Campaigns for the top office in the state usually have some slips, failings and misappropriated and/or poorly stated comments.

It’s how people can tell if the candidates are thinking about what they are saying. Missteps will be made and inappropriate things said when candidates are in front of the public as much as they are during a political campaign.

That’s no excuse for really poor form, but still, candidates are people and politicians say strange things. That should be no shocker to anybody observing Maine campaigns.

Democratic candidate Libby Mitchell’s handling of Republican Paul LePage’s joking inference that she is old was the perfect response — dismiss it decisively and move on.

Surely, LePage and his staff quickly recognized he had pitched her a big fat softball right down the middle of the plate early on in this race.

He ends up looking boorish and crude and she, well, dignified and, some would even say, “governly.”

To his credit, LePage eventually apologized for the joke apparently gone awry.

The most troubling thing about the ageist statement would be if it truly were part of a campaign strategy. According to a Kennebec Journal report, an earlier speaker warmed up the crowd at a Lepage rally the same day by making another joking comment about Mitchell’s age.

Perhaps, after some fast math, the fiscal conservative’s team deduced that if LePage served two terms as governor he would be nearly as old as Mitchell is now — i.e. you’re no spring chicken yourself ...

What’s more, making an issue of age in a state with the oldest average population in the nation doesn’t make sense.

The incident left everyone doing a double take and created a considerable campaign flap.

LePage’s campaign has since countered that Mitchell’s campaign has called into question his French-Catholic roots. Age, ethnicity and religion all seem quite divergent from the issues facing Maine these days.

This early negative trend will likely only push more voters to the ranks of the disenfranchised or further toward independent candidates Eliot Cutler, Shawn Moody and Kevin Scott.

Coverage of the back and forth between the Mitchell and LePage camps has had the unintended effect of making this seem like a two-candidate race, pitting the two traditional parties against each other.

As they struggle for name recognition, it’s hard to know whether the independents — Cutler, Scott and Moody — feel relieved not to be sucked into the mess or whether they miss getting the attention they desperately need.

The Mitchell/LePage disputes also raise the question of how easily the media — newspapers included — tend to focus on hot but inconsequential issues.

Charges of age discrimination and ethnic or religious bias are much easier to report on or fit into a 20-minute TV newscast than complex issues such as the state budget or the looming public employee pension gap.

In any event, we hope this flap isn’t a sign of what’s in store for Maine voters during the months ahead.

editorialboard@sunjournal.com