AUGUSTA — Rick Bennett had the audience’s attention as he made his pitch for succeeding Gov. Janet Mills as Maine’s next leader.

“I’m running as an independent because Maine’s next chapter cannot be dictated by party bosses in Augusta or Washington, D.C., or by these special interests,” he said at an event last week, his voice beginning to rise, “who are literally spending hundreds of millions of dollars right this very second polluting our politics with negative advertising and dark money from God knows where.”

He kept going, railing against the system as “dependent upon conflict … not resolution.”

Those standing on either side of the barn board table stretching the length of the small event space below Cushnoc Brewing Co. in Augusta gave Bennett high marks. To them, now is the time for a voice like his, which is beholden to neither political party.

The thing is, Bennett only had about a dozen people listening to him.

It characterized the chief issue facing the former Maine Republican Party chair and state senator from Oxford in his campaign for governor against Democrat Hannah Pingree and Republican Bobby Charles: For all the respect Bennett, 63, has within Maine political circles as a long-serving figure who is not afraid to speak out against both parties, he may simply not get enough of a look from voters who mostly consider those with the letters D or R next to their names on a ballot.

Bennett remained well behind the other two candidates in the latest New York Times/Portland Press Herald/Siena poll released Friday, garnering just 8% of support from respondents, or the same percentage he received in a June poll. Pingree received 48% and Charles had 36% in the survey, which was conducted Sept. 15-17 with a margin of error of +/- 2.9%.

Bennett has also trailed those two in fundraising. He has raised almost $930,000 during his campaign and had only about $90,000 on hand, per his latest campaign finance report.

That’s not to say Maine has dismissed independents in the past. Maine voters elected James Longley as the state’s first independent governor in 1974 and then elected Angus King to the Blaine House two decades later. Today, King serves in the U.S. Senate as an independent who caucuses with Democrats.

But the ingredients that were part of the Longley and King victories — including weak or underfunded major party candidates — are not as noticeable this year. Bennett’s opponents are Pingree, a 49-year-old North Haven resident who boasts bipartisan accomplishments from her time as the Maine House speaker and name recognition as the daughter of U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree; and Charles, who captivated Republican voters earlier this year with his primary campaign featuring big promises to fix Maine’s problems.

Political observers felt Bennett may have benefited from the nomination of Charles, a 66-year-old Leeds lawyer who served in former Republican presidential administrations, due to Charles embracing a pro-Trump style in the GOP primary. But Charles has pivoted a bit toward the political center during the general election, eschewing a recent visit from Vice President JD Vance and saying he does not agree with the president on Canadian tariffs.

Every major independent poll has showed Bennett failing to crack 10% support, while Charles has been above 30%. Pingree leads by double digits. Both Republicans and Democrats have hit Bennett for either being too liberal — he aligned with Senate Democrats and opposed his party on various social issues, particularly last year’s transgender athlete bills — or for being too conservative. As the Maine GOP chair from 2013 to 2017, he supported Trump in his 2016 election.

Bennett, who first won election to the Legislature in 1990, left it in 2004 and then joined the Senate again in 2020, stepped outside Cushnoc to talk with a reporter about his path to victory, saying he thinks more voters are starting to pay attention to his race after Labor Day.

The candidate said his GOP past means his supporters appear to include plenty of “disaffected Republicans, but there are a lot of disaffected Democrats too, and they’re all across the spectrum.”

Whatever his path, Bennett is running like he has a chance. He is completing a walking tour of Maine — he was in Biddeford and Saco recently, and his team posted a social media video from his Skowhegan stop in August set to “Touch The Sky” by Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West — in a campaign endeavor that mimics what a former member of Congress, Republican Bill Cohen, did in 1972.

Cohen, for whom Bennett worked when Cohen was in the Senate and who later became former President Bill Clinton’s defense secretary, endorsed Bennett on Monday.

“Electing an independent as Maine’s governor is not an exotic concept — we have done so twice in the last 50 years when the parties were lacking in leadership and a candidate emerged who received attention and respect from Maine voters,” Cohen said. “I believe this is also such a moment.”

Mike Michaud, who as a Democrat joined Bennett in serving as the Maine Senate president in a power-sharing agreement for the evenly-divided chamber after the 2000 election, is now an independent. Like Cohen, Michaud said in a Monday interview he thinks the current political environment gives Bennett a chance at the Blaine House.

“Rick needs to keep doing is what I’ve seen him doing, getting out and meeting people face to face and listening to what’s on their minds, particularly in rural areas,” said Michaud, 71, who represented the 2nd District in the U.S. House from 2003 to 2015 and currently serves on East Millinocket’s Select Board.

Still, Pingree looks like the clear favorite to win the Nov. 3 race. On Sunday, she joined King in his hometown of Brunswick to receive an endorsement from Maine’s last independent governor. She also appeared in Portland’s Lincoln Park last week for an event where a mix of independents and Republicans talked about how they are supporting her.

Former state Rep. Ed Crockett, a Democrat-turned-independent from Portland who briefly launched his own bid for governor last year, was at the park to support Pingree. He told a reporter after the event that he appreciated serving with Bennett in the Legislature, but thinks his going “a little bit rogue on his party” may not help him as much on the “trust” side in a statewide race.

That independent streak, however, is what Bennett’s supporters are highlighting. David Heidrich, an Augusta resident who worked in former Gov. Paul LePage’s administration, was at last week’s town hall and told a reporter that Bennett is “a breath of fresh air.”

Pam Partridge, a retired teacher from North Anson, was there as a registered Democrat who is considering Bennett. Jennifer Jewett, a stay-at-home mom in Augusta, said she is also a registered Democrat, but is set on supporting Bennett.

“I’m not even interested in other candidates,” Jewett, 45, said, listing housing and timely mental health treatment as being top issues on her mind.

Bennett took questions and spoke on topics such as children’s behavioral health services, housing and education from the small audience at Cushnoc.

He alluded to his business resume, which includes time at corporate governance firms and his experience co-founding the investor advising firm ValueEdge Advisors in 2014.

A big part of his pitch was not so much about policy, but about treating “each other as neighbors with kindness, with civility, with humanity.”

“Now some say this is wishful thinking,” Bennett told the room. “But it’s up to each of us to make this happen, and Mainers deserve that.”

He sighed when talking with a reporter about what’s next and how the election cycle will keep going in the future, with or without him.

“The nice thing about politics, there’s always an end to it, unless there isn’t, but then it’s just on to the next election, which is unfortunately the way it goes,” Bennett said. “And I think people are reacting against that.”