Nobody Gets Email: Gov. Paul LaPage

Meet Maine’s New Governor…In case you haven’t heard of this guy before, his name will stick in your mind. The new Maine Governor, Paul LePage, is making New Jersey’s governor Chris Christie look like an enabler. He isn’t afraid to speak what he thinks. Judging by the comments, every time he opens his mouth his popularity goes up.

He brought down the house at his inauguration when he looked up at the media box, shook his fist and said, “You’re on notice! I’ve got a financially troubled state to run. Observe…cover what you like, but don’t whine if I don’t waste time responding to your every need for your amusement.”

During his campaign for Governor, he was talking to commercial fishermen who are struggling because of federal fisherie regulations. They complained that Obama brought his family to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park for a long Labor Day holiday and found time to meet with union leaders, but wouldn’t talk to the fishermen. The governor replied, “I’d tell him to go to hell and get out of my state.” The main stream media crucified LePage, but he jumped 6 points in the election poll.

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The Martin Luther King incident was a political sandlot which brought him National exposure. The ‘lame stream’ media crusified him, but word on the street is very positive. The NAACP asked LePage to spend MLK Day visiting black inmates at the state Prison. He told them that he would meet with All the inmates regardless of race, if he were to visit the prison. The NAACP balked and then put out a news release claiming that he refused to participate in any MLK events. He read the paper for the lst time the next morning while being driven to work and went ballistic because none of the reporters had called him for comment before running the NAACP attack.

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He arrived at that event and said in front of a TV camera, “If they want to play the race card on me they can kiss my ass.” He reminded them that he has an adopted black son from Jamaica, and that he attended the local MLK breakfast every year that he was mayor of Waterville. (He started his morning there on MLK Day.)

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He then stated that there’s a right way and a wrong way to meet with the Governor, and he put all special interests on notice that press releases, media leaks, and all demagoguery would prove to be the wrong way. He said that any other group, which acted like the NAACP could expect to be at the bottom of the Governor’s priority list.

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He then did the following, and judging from local radio talk show callers, his popularity increased even more: The state employees union complained because he waited until 3 P.M. before closing state offices and facilities and sending non-emergency personnel home during the last blizzard. The prior Governor would often close offices for the day with just a forecast before the first flakes. (Each time the state closes for snow, it costs the taxpayers about $1 million in wages for no work return.)

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LePage was CEO of the Marden’s chain of discount family bargain retail stores before election as governor. He noted that state employees getting off work early could still find lots of retail stores open to shop. So, he put the state employees on notice by announcing: “If Marden’s is open, Maine is open!” He told state employees:

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 “We live in Maine in the winter, for heaven’s sake, and should know how to drive in it. Otherwise, apply for a state joy in Florida!”

January 28, 2012 Posted by Joyanna Adams | politics | Paul LePage, politics | 1 Comment