Candidate: State Sen. Chandler Woodcock, candidate in the June 13 Republican primary. He faces former U.S. Rep. Dave Emery and state Sen. Peter Mills.

TV ad: “Issues”

Length: 30 seconds

Producer: Dan Osgood Productions

Market: Statewide beginning Wednesday.

Announcer: Narrated by Chandler Woodcock

Visuals: Woodcock’s picture is interspersed among images of Mainers at work and play. There’s a scenic river, a dairy farmer and fishermen. As Woodcock speaks, the images are replaced by the words: “High Tax Burden,” “Poor Business Climate” and “High Health Insurance Cost.”

As Woodcock talks about his priorities, the words are replaced with: “Reduce high insurance costs,” “Improve Maine’s business climate” and “Reduce Maine’s income tax.”

The advertisement closes with Woodcock, his campaign logo and the address for his Web site, www.woodcockforgovernor.com.

Text, audio: “Hi. I’m Chandler Woodcock, and I’m running for governor because I love Maine and the things that make this state special, like our unique natural environment and our working heritage.

“But Maine is facing challenges that need to be addressed today.

“It’s time to reduce the price of health insurance, improve our business climate and let our working families keep more of their own paychecks.

“We need to deal with these issues and restore trust in our government. I’m Chandler Woodcock, and I’d appreciate your vote on June 13.”

Purpose: The ad continues the campaign’s mission of introducing Woodcock to Republican primary voters who might not be familiar with him. The new ad will be rotated with a biographical spot that has been running lightly for several weeks. The campaign described the ad buy as heavy.

Accuracy: The claims made in the advertisement are subjective, and there’s no information presented on how the candidate would make health insurance more affordable, improve the business climate or reduce income taxes.

Nonetheless, the advertisement captures the sentiments of all three Republican candidates for governor that taxes are too high, that health insurance costs could be reduced with market reforms and that the state’s business climate needs to improve.

Maine’s income tax is graduated, with rates ranging from 2 percent to 8.5 percent. The top rate, however, applies at a relatively low income, $17,700 for an individual taxpayer and $35,450 for a married couple filing jointly.

A conservative think tank, The Tax Foundation, says that Maine has the highest combined state and local tax burden in the country, but there are a number of ways to peel that apple.

Numbers for 2005, released by the U.S. Census Bureau, show Maine ranked 19th in per capita state taxes paid. Maine ranked 16th in 2004 and 15th in 2003.

The Federation of Tax Administrators used the Census numbers and ranked Maine 13th in state tax revenue as a percentage of personal income.

Maine places a number of restrictions on insurance companies that are blamed for driving up costs, including community ratings and guaranteed issue. Community ratings limit the range of premiums that a health insurance company can charge, while guaranteed issue means an insurer can’t deny coverage to someone because he or she is sick.

Our view: There’s not much meat to the advertisement in terms of particulars, but there’s only so much specificity that can be expected in a 30-second television commercial. Woodcock is playing to some of his strengths with this ad and the biographical ad released earlier this year: his personal charisma and likability.

Woodcock’s campaign likes to say that the more people who meet the candidate, the more who become convinced to vote for him. Television advertisements won’t make that same kind personal, one-on-one connection, but they are a way for Woodcock to whittle away at the advantage his opponents have in name recognition, especially in population-heavy southern Maine.