Candidate: Ad was made by the Maine Democratic Party for the benefit of Gov. John Baldacci. It was not coordinated with the campaign.

TV ad: “Backward”

Length: 30 seconds

Producer: Main Street Communications

Market: Bangor and Portland

Announcer: Off-screen male voice.

Visuals: The ad starts with an older couple walking backward and a young couple running backward. It then shows Republican gubernatorial candidate Chandler Woodcock walking backward in a parade.

There’s a red arrow with the word “Backward” that scrolls across the screen.

The ad shifts to black and white images of women punching a time clock and men walking toward a factory. The words “voted to impose Bush’s overtime pay rules” and “opposed raising the minimum wage” appear on the screen.

Still in black and white, the ad shows billowing smokestacks and a worker with the words “voted against pollution control” on the screen. The image switches to a woman voting.

Woodcock is then shown moving backward again, followed by the words “It’s a bad idea.”

Color images of a young couple jogging with a stroller appear on the screen along with a blue arrow and the word “forward.”

Text, audio: “Mainers don’t walk backward. We don’t run backward. So why would we let Chandler Woodcock lead us backward?

Woodcock voted to impose George Bush’s overtime pay rules on Maine workers.

He opposed raising the minimum wage. Twice.

He even voted against the bond that removed toxic chemicals from our land and water. The same bond approved by Maine voters.

Chandler Woodcock wants to take us backward.

It’s a bad idea. There’s only one direction for Maine and that’s forward.”

Purpose: Watch out. Elect Chandler Woodcock and the state will lose ground. We’ll go back to a black-and-white era of worker exploitation and a fouled environment. Baldacci’s poll numbers have hovered in the 40-45 percent range from most of the year. In a five-way race, that might be enough to win. But to make sure, the Democratic Party is trying to drive up Woodcock’s negative rating with voters by highlighting controversial votes he’s cast in the state Senate.

Accuracy: The ad picks on particular votes cast by Woodcock during his time in the state Senate. Woodcock voted twice against increasing the minimum wage in 2006. He also voted against an environmental bond that included money for pollution control in 2003 and for a bill that would conform Maine law to federal law for overtime rules.

Our view: Points off for lacking originality. The same idea was used in California for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides, who’s running against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. In the California ad, it’s Schwarzenegger going backward on a motorcycle. The Maine version swipes the idea but executes it better.

Woodcock’s campaign says the Maine Democratic Party and Gov. John Baldacci are engaging in negative campaigning. The ad certainly has a negative feel, and it’s possible some people could be turned off.

It is also true the Democratic Party has picked issues it believes resonate with voters. Polls show that increasing the minimum wage has strong public support.

In politics, one side’s victory can feel like a step backward to the other side. On the minimum wage and state bonding, Democrats and Republicans disagree about what progress looks like. Regardless of whether you think a higher minimum wage is a good thing or a bad thing, the ad says how Woodcock voted when the issue came up most recently, even if that information is presented with a Democratic interpretation.

Another ad could cite the same votes and say: “Chandler Woodcock stood up for small business by opposing a wage that hurts competitiveness, worked to limit state debt and bring Maine in line with federal laws protecting workers.” But it wouldn’t be a Democratic ad.

Democrats keep returning to the theme of “taking the state backward.” Expect to hear it through Nov. 7.