Angus King entered the U.S. Senate race with a reputation any politician would envy: well-liked, successful, forward-thinking and statesmanlike. By any measure, King remains all those things even though his campaign hasn’t matched the polish and sophistication of its candidate.

King set out to run a classic front-runner campaign: Stay above the fray, don’t make any unforced errors and run the clock down to Election Day. Smart and appropriate. But that approach still requires a focused and proactive effort to maintain existing support, bank popular goodwill and pre-emptively take the sting out of opposition attacks.

The King campaign knew the attacks were coming, but instead of telling King’s story and continually reminding voters why they like him so much, the campaign has played small ball, never producing the sort of disciplined narrative or big ideas worthy of the candidate.

Let’s be clear, Angus King is still very likely the next junior U.S. senator from Maine, but this race never needed to approach competitive.

Self-inflicted distractions, process arguments, and passivity have created the running room for Republican interests to define the message landscape, diminish King’s political brand and put King’s campaign on its heels.

We experienced the first taste of the campaign’s myopia when it moved aggressively in May to remove a parody account from Twitter. The episode created a news story, raised the offending account’s profile, and showed little initial understanding of the medium.

The campaign threatened to conduct background checks on voters who won a contest to eat a hot dog with the candidate. It edited an otherwise excellent piece by Maine Sunday Telegram reporter Colin Woodard before posting a revised version that removed a handful of less- than-perfect passages.

Its earned media program has been disjointed, swinging from a motorcycle tour to broadband deployment to the debt crisis but failing to reinforce any overarching campaign message.

Surrogates have been deployed reactively, such as when the U.S. Chamber launched its first ad dubbing King the “King of Spending.” The campaign did roll out former Clinton chief of staff Erskine Bowles and actor Sam Waterston to endorse King. But few know Bowles, King doesn’t fully support the Simpson-Bowles plan, and it’s not clear why the TD Ameritrade front man and former “Law & Order” assistant district attorney is relevant to Maine voters.

Most recently, the campaign called a press conference to threaten legal action to remove television ads produced by the National Republican Senatorial Committee that it found objectionable. For the supposed frontrunner, the move appeared weak and panicky.

These are not the strategic, thoughtful and disciplined actions of a sophisticated campaign executing from a coordinated playbook. Rather, they smack of a campaign reacting to events day by day and throwing ideas at the wall to see what sticks.

Missing in all the King campaign’s activity is the most indispensible and fundamental campaign element: a compelling and memorable narrative for King’s election to the U.S. Senate rooted in his life experiences, values, accomplishments, priorities and ideas.

The campaign hasn’t even run a bio ad to (re)introduce King to voters, promote his vision for Maine, or establish the issues central to his candidacy. Simply “thinking independently” and professing an ability to “get things done” and “shake up Washington” isn’t sufficient. People want to know what you stand for, where you come from, your ideas for moving Maine and the nation forward.

Where are the school kids who first benefited from King’s laptop program and are now pursuing good paying IT careers in Maine? Where is the ad highlighting King’s critical role in recruiting National Semiconductor to Maine, creating 500 new jobs? Where is the struggling rural family that enjoyed better times under a King administration? Where, in short, are real Mainers who can bring to life King’s positive impact on their lives and the value of his leadership?

Early last week, recognizing a strategic shift was needed, the campaign announced it will draw clear distinctions with its primary opponent, Republican Charlie Summers. But that means King will continue to throw from his back foot and engage on the message battlefield Summers prefers.

King’s campaign should forget about Charlie and recognize the best defense is a good, unrelenting offense.

In these last five weeks, facing withering outside spending, the King campaign must forgo the small-ball tactics and instead aggressively bring to life the real Angus — a husband and father, a businessman, a successful governor and an innovative leader with an agenda to improve the lives of Maine people.

Tell your story, Angus. Remind people why they like you. Play offense. Go big.

Michael Cuzzi is a former campaign aide to President Barack Obama, Sen. John Kerry and Congressman Tom Allen. He manages the Portland office for VOX Global, a strategic communications and public affairs firm headquartered in Washington, D.C. He can be reached at:

jcuzzi@gmail.com

Twitter: @CuzzMJ