Maine Republicans are crying foul over a new political television ad from Democratic incumbent Rep. Michael Michaud that takes aim at some State House renovations made by his Republican opponent since his election as president of the state senate. Michaud is charging that GOP 2nd Congressional District nominee Kevin Raye spent more than $20,000 to make improvements to his private office and a Senate Republican lounge. But Republicans say the ad's claims are false and that Michaud should pull the spots from the air. A.J. Higgins has more.

The new ad from the Michaud for Congress campaign depicts Kevin Raye wearing a contractor's white safety helmet, and features a trio of typical Mainers. They're discussing some renovations Raye authorized as president of the Maine Senate.

Audio from ad:

"Mainer" #1: "Kevin Raye. One of Raye's first acts was to decorate the Republican lounge and put a private kitchen in his office - for $20,000."

"Mainer" #2: "Twenty-thousand taxpayer dollars?"

"Mainer" #3: "Maybe he just doesn't like to eat out. Kevin Raye just doesn't get it."

Only a few weeks ago, Republicans took their own shot at Michaud in an ad that criticized his decision to authorize a taxpayer-funded car lease for his office. Republicans said the ad was a humorous poke at the Democratic incumbent.

But state GOP communications director David Sorensen wasn't laughing at the the ad that teases Raye for building a kitchen in his office.

"I'll be the first one -- even if it's coming from a Democrat -- if there's a clever attack ad, I'll think it's funny," Sorensen says. "But when there's an ad that's just riddled with lies, than that is something entirely different."

Sorensen says Michaud's ad is wrong on several counts, starting with the amount of money that was actually spent. He called the ad an attack ad because he says it fails to recognize some positive steps Raye took to save Maine taxpayers some money.

"Michaud inflated the numbers for the minor renovation of a coffee stand abutting the Senate chamber that many people use -- not just President Raye -- all the senators and staff," Sorensen says. " But more importantly, let's not forget that Kevin Raye cut the legislative budget by 16 percent. He went in there with Speaker Nutting and saved an enormous amount of money - millions of dollars."

At Michaud for Congress headquarters, communications director Dan Cashman stood by the numbers quoted in the ad and was a little surprised to learn that Republicans were taking its message so seriously.

"We thought it would be fun to have a humorous ad on the air as well," Cashman says. "We didn't want to go any longer without having a humorous ad on the airways to talk about things that are going on within the Senate president's office at the expense of Maine taxpayers."

Now the Raye campaign is calling on Michaud to take the ad down. They say that the ad was an unfair hit on the Republican by Democrats who believe Michaud is losing ground. But that's not what the most recent polling has shown.

"I think that one of the things that's been surprising to me all along is that the Raye candidacy hasn't performed better than it has to this point," says Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine. Brewer says most of the polling he's seen in the race shows Michaud with a comfortable lead.

Brewer and other election watchers tend to view Maine's 2nd Congressional District as more conservative and less inclined to support the policies of President Barack Obama. Although a Republican poll contends that Raye is within seven points of catching Michaud, it stands in contrast to most of the polling that election watchers such as Mark Brewer have seen.

"This is by far the toughest reelection challenge that Mike Michaud has faced - I think a lot of people at the outset of this election cycle thought that this was going to be a very hotly-contested race, that we'd see a lot of outside money coming in, we'd see interest from both parties," Brewer says. "That just simply hasn't materialized."

Cashman says Michaud's team has no intentions of pulling the new ad and says he remains confident that the congressman continues to command a strong lead over Kevin Raye.