BRUNSWICK — When School Board Chairman Byron Watson appealed to a legislative leader for more education aid, he used inappropriate and sexist language, local lawmakers say.

In a Feb. 5 e-mail message to House Speaker Hannah Pingree, D-North Haven, Watson wrote: “Let me start off by stating you are the most gorgeous member of the Legislature.” He ended that sentence with a smiley-face emoticon.

“I am not writing to hit on you though,” he continued. “I am actually hoping there is a way to persuade you to lobby in favor of seriously reconsidering the drastically disproportionate hit that is being laid upon the Brunswick School System.”

The system faces a proposed $3 million reduction in state education aid.

At a Feb. 10 school board meeting, Watson questioned efforts by local lawmakers to prevent the loss of funding.

In response, members of the delegation claim Watson never bothered to meet with them.  And they criticized his e-mail to Pingree, which Sen. Stan Gerzofsky, D-Brunswick, called “absolutely beyond the pale.”

Pingree is one of the smartest people he knows, Gerzofsky said. “That woman is speaker because she is smart, not because she’s cute and pretty. That’s not how you address the House speaker. This ain’t 1950.”

Rep. Charlie Priest, R-Brunswick, said Watson’s remark was misguided. “Your first impulse is to laugh, because you can’t believe it,” he said. “That’s not the appropriate tone to take with the House speaker, especially if you want her help.”

Watson called the lawmakers’ remarks “character assassination.”

He didn’t think the e-mail was inappropriate, he said.

“It’s the same old elitist stuff from these guys,” Watson said. “They think they’re better and smarter than everyone else, and they’re completely avoiding the issue, which is the unfair treatment of this school system by the state. Instead of taking the fight to Augusta, they’re taking it to me.”

Watson also questioned the timing of the legislators’ remarks, which came shortly after his Feb. 10 comments to the School Board, and five days after the e-mail was sent.

Tim Feeley, Pingree’s communications director, said he was taken aback by Watson’s comments.

“I didn’t know who Byron Watson was, but I quickly found out,” Feeley said. He noted that Watson’s message never indicated he was chairman of the school board.

“In over a year working for (Pingree), I’ve never gotten e-mail like that from a regular citizen, let alone from a chairman of a school board,” Feeley said. “(Pingree) just sort of rolled her eyes at it. Maybe he thought he was making a joke, but it fell flat.”

Watson, a 30-year-old Brunswick native, has worked for Republican U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe and local GOP candidates. He denied that his criticism of Brunswick’s legislative delegation — all Democrats — was politically motivated.

“This is about a bunch of grumpy old men who are threatened by my own record of accomplishment,” he said.

Watson said he doesn’t plan to challenge members of the delegation as a Republican candidate in November, adding that they will be “running on their record,” which he said included supporting a school district consolidation law that will mean Brunswick’s loss of $189,000 in tuition students from Durham.

Last week, the School Board voted to create a citizen liaison to work with the delegation, but Watson said it may be too late.

“The time to fight was two weeks ago,” he said.

Priest and Gerzofsky continued to defend their efforts, adding that the delegation helped save Brunswick from consolidation — a law the district sharply opposed.

“(Watson’s) remarks were unfortunate,” Priest said. “But I think it’s best for everybody to put all that aside and work together.”

Gerzofsky said he was disappointed that the Brunswick School Board didn’t contact the delegation for assistance.

“It would be awfully nice if the school board invited legislators in to work on ideas instead of going to the television and newspapers to yell and scream,” he said.