Paul LePage: Maine’s Embarrassment

[Scuba]

http://www.progressive.org/news/2014/10/187901/paul-lepage-maine%E2%80%99s-embarrassment

LePage met in 2013 with the Constitutional Coalition, a conspiratorial group from the northern part of the state whose members identify with the “sovereign citizen movement,” as Portlander Mike Tipping revealed in a shocking new book, As Maine Went. The sovereign citizen movement warns darkly of a U.N. takeover of Maine’s north woods, believes the state and federal governments are illegitimate, and considers all lawyers to be communists. The FBI has deemed it a terrorist threat.

LePage met with them not once but eight times from February into September, even while refusing to meet with Democratic leaders in the statehouse. During those meetings, these rightwing activists charged these same Democratic leaders, House Speaker Mark Eves and Senate President Alfond, with treason, suggesting they should receive the ultimate punishment, death. Instead of reporting the threat, LePage brokered a meeting between these far rightwingers and the county sheriff overseeing the state capitol, whose help they wanted in going after the two legislators.

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He gave a secret, no-bid $925,000 contract to an out-of-state conservative to evaluate Medicaid expansion and anti-poverty programs. It turned out the contractor plagiarized part of the draft report and relied for his conclusions on key research errors. When the Bangor Daily News exposed this scandal and public pressure mounted, LePage was finally forced to cancel the contract after paying out nearly half a million dollars.

Even liberal Republicans were outraged when LePage hired ALEC’s Maine co-chair—an industry lobbyist named Patricia Aho—to head the state Department of Environmental Protection. He gave her marching orders to roll back regulations and trash the new state law curbing toys and other products made of toxic plastic. Aho had represented some of their manufacturers. Similarly, LePage’s education commissioner until last August was Stephen Bowen, who served on ALEC’s education committee while working for the rightwing Maine Heritage Policy Center. While on the committee, he helped push model legislation giving public money to “virtual” online schools. Once working for LePage, he used his position to promote two for-profits from out of state, including one, K12 Inc. of Virginia, that was exposed for fraudulently using uncertified teachers. Another virtual charter, linked to the for-profit education giant Pearson, got the go-ahead in March from the state charter commission to accept students starting in the fall.