State Auditor Matt Dunlap’s campaign for Maine’s 2nd Congressional District launched a website with an online game Tuesday that takes a jab at former Gov. Paul LePage over his residency.
The “Where in the World is Paul LePage?” game pokes fun at the Republican contender for moving between Maine and Florida over the years.
It also mentions the Portland Press Herald’s story from last month on how LePage has been using an Augusta apartment above a barber shop for his listed address during the former governor’s 2nd District campaign. The site argues that LePage “doesn’t seem to live in Maine.”
The game consists of five questions about LePage’s whereabouts. The “clues” that players receive for each of the five rounds are made up: one claims that LePage was spotted “buying sunscreen at a Publix Supermarket;” another says he was seen “wearing flip-flops in January.” The answer to each round’s question is Florida.
Despite the tongue-in-cheek nature of the game — evinced by its url, lepagelivesinflorida.com — Dunlap is using it to argue that “Mainers need a congressman who shows up — not someone who shows up every couple of years to run for office and then goes back to Florida.”
“While LePage has been out of state, people here have been dealing with rising healthcare costs, hospital closures, and attacks on Medicare and Social Security, all because of Washington dysfunction,” Dunlap, of Old Town, said in a statement.
LePage and Republicans are confident in the former governor’s chances of winning the 2nd District seat in November. U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a moderate Democrat, has held it since 2018, but the rural district has backed President Donald Trump in each of his elections.
LePage, 77, and his wife have owned a home in Ormond Beach, Florida, over the years while also living in Maine. LePage moved to Florida after he was termed out of the Blaine House in 2019 and became a Florida resident, but then moved back to Edgecomb for the 2022 gubernatorial comeback bid that he lost to Gov. Janet Mills.
LePage, a Lewiston native and former Waterville mayor, then moved back to Florida and was a registered voter in Ormond Beach until he got the itch to run again in Maine.
He launched his 2nd District bid last May. He is currently within the rules for House members under the U.S. Constitution, which says the member only needs to live in the state and not necessarily the district he or she represents by the time of their election.
LePage’s campaign responded to the online “game” from Dunlap, 61, by pointing to LePage’s efforts to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for families of the 2023 Lewiston mass shooting victims. A spokesperson said he has spent every summer in Maine while his wife, Ann, worked as a waitress in Boothbay Harbor.
The new website is an example of “Democrat political consultants trying to make a name for themselves,” the LePage spokesperson said.
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