In case you haven't heard about this guy before, his name will stick in your mind! The new Maine Governor, Paul LePage, is making New Jersey's Governor Chris Christe look like an enabler. He isn't afraid to say 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 shook his fist toward the media box and said, "You're on notice! I've inherited a financially troubled State to run. Observe...cover what we do...but don't waste time responding to your every whim for your amusement."
During his campaign for Governor, he was talking to commercial fisherman who are struggling because of federal fisheries rules. 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 fisherman. LePage replied, "I'd tell him to go to hell and get out of my State." The lame stream media crucified LePage, but he jumped 6 points in the pre-election poll.
The Martin Luther King incident was a political sandbag which brought him National exposure. The "Lame Stream" media crucified him again, but word on the street is very positive. The NAACP specifically asked LePage to spend MLK Day visiting black inmates at the Maine State Prison. He told them that he would meet will all inmates, regardless of race, if he were to visit the prison. The NAACP balked and then put out a news release claiming falsely that he refused to participate in any MLK events. He read it in the paper for the first time the next morning while being driven to an event and went ballistic because none of the reporters had called him for comment before running the NAACP release.
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!", and then he reminded them that he has an adopted black son from Jamaica, and that he had attended the local MLK Breakfast every year that he was mayor of Waterville. (He started his day there on MLK Day.)
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 demonstrations 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.
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 3PM before closing State offices and facilities and sending non-emergency personnel home during a blizzard. The prior Governor would often close offices for the day with just a forecast before the first flakes. (Each time the State of Maine closes for snow, it costs the taxpayers about one million in wages for no work in return.)
LePage was the CEO of Marden's chain of discount family bargain retail stores before his 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, "We live in Maine in the winter, for heaven's sake, and you should know how to drive in it. Otherwise apply for a State job in Florida!"
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