After remaining largely silent on the past weekend’s violence in Virginia, Gov. Paul LePage erupted Thursday on the radio. Maine’s Republican governor echoed President Donald Trump’s reaction to the Charlottesville conflict, assigning equal blame to white supremacists and counter-protesters who showed up to oppose a rally against removing a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. […]
Paul LePage
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Paul LePage says a Medicaid expansion would kill Maine
Gov. Paul LePage has turned his attention squarely at defeating the Medicaid expansion referendum on this November’s ballot, claiming again that broadening eligibility for the government-run program would drive the state into backbreaking debt. LePage’s ardent opposition to Medicaid expansion is nothing new. He has vetoed bids to do so six times during his tenure, […]
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Posted inMaine, sj-web
Paul LePage offers pay raise for 'right to work' language in contracts
Gov. Paul LePage used the lure of higher wage increases for members of Maine’s largest state workers union to win a key concession in his campaign to weaken the clout of organized labor. In exchange for a 6 percent pay increase over the next two years, negotiators for the Maine State Employees Association have agreed […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Paul LePage says Eric Brakey is a long shot to beat Angus King
Gov. Paul LePage is sounding more and more like he plans next year to challenge independent.Angus King’s bid for a second term in the U.S. Senate. During a radio interview Thursday, the governor indicated that the only declared major party challenger — state Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn — likely can’t win. “I don’t see it […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Paul LePage says Matt Dunlap wrong to not supply voter data
PORTLAND (AP) — Maine’s Republican governor says the state’s secretary of state is making a mistake by denying a request for voter data made by a Trump commission. Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, a Democrat, has declined to comply with a request by the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, which is investigating possible voter […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
ACLU sues Paul LePage for blocking critics on Facebook
AUGUSTA — The American Civil Liberties Union of Maine sued Gov. Paul LePage on Tuesday in federal court, alleging that he violated constitutional free-speech rights by blocking two critical commenters from his Facebook page and deleting their comments. The 20-page lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court follows a July letter from the group asked the Republican governor to […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Nate Libby uses ‘colorful language’ in tweet aimed at LePage
AUGUSTA — A letter from Gov. Paul LePage that sharply criticized Sen. Nate Libby’s support for raising the age to buy cigarettes left the Lewiston Democrat smoking mad. The Republican governor called senators who overrode his veto of a measure that hiked the legal age to buy tobacco products from 18 to 21 “hypocrites” for […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
Paul LePage adds George Mitchell to his ‘sadly out of touch’ list
Maine Gov. Paul LePage, testifies during a House Natural Resources subcommittee oversight hearing on the Antiquities Act on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday, May 2, 2017. Gov. Paul LePage shot back at former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell on Friday for Mitchell’s defense of recent votes on the Affordable Care Act by U.S. Sens. Susan […]
Posted inMaine, sj-web
LePage administration asks feds for MaineCare work requirements
AUGUSTA (AP) — Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s administration is officially asking the federal government to impose work and premium requirements on state Medicaid recipients. Low-income Mainers this spring told state regulators the changes would make it harder to access health care that would allow them to work. Maine Public reported (http://bit.ly/2vvfuU4 ) Maine Equal Justice […]
Posted inLetters, sj-web
LePage's foot-in-mouth act
Here we go again — the governor can always be counted on to put his foot in his mouth. Some things in a safe, sane and cautious society must be regulated, that is what laws are for. I am sure that Gov. Paul LePage, regardless of being “tired of regulations” on society, did not realize […]