Before Gov. Paul LePage called on Donald Trump to show “some authoritarian power in our country and bring back the rule of law” during a radio interview this week, he weighed in on the hard-fought 2nd District congressional contest.

LePage praised Republican incumbent Bruce Poliquin — though the freshman lawmaker “has given me some gray hairs at times” — and denounced Democratic challenger Emily Cain for airing misleading daily television ads.

“What they’re doing is just so disgusting,” LePage said.

But LePage also denounced a GOP commercial that blasted Cain for promoting a measure to weigh schoolchildren as part of an anti-obesity effort. The governor agreed with WVOM hosts George Hale and Ric Tyler that it was “a bad ad.”

Cain’s promotional efforts, though, came under fire from the governor who said he “really, truly did have some respect for her” during her stint in the Legislature because she “had a willingness to work.”

Now, though, he said she is out there “saying things that she knows are wrong. She knows they’re lies. I know they’re lies. But she’s got ads on the TV every day lying to Maine people.”

LePage singled out a Cain ad featuring a breast cancer survivor who credited the Democrat for making insurance companies “cover oral chemotherapy just like other cancer treatments” that allowed her to get treatment without shelling out thousands of dollars monthly.

“Emily Cain saw a problem and cared enough to fix it. Her bill helped save my life,” the woman featured in the ad concluded.

LePage said that’s not how it works.

Cain “didn’t do that. It was the Legislature that did that,” the governor said. “She might have supported it. But it’s not fair for her to say she personally did it. She works with the rest of the Legislature and it’s a give and take.”

Cain was the lead sponsor of the legislation.

LePage also spoke about Poliquin.

“If nothing else, he is probably the hardest-working congressman in Washington. His colleagues call him the Energizer Bunny because he will not give up,” LePage said.

Though LePage said he doesn’t always agree with Poliquin, “he’s the guy that’s working every single day because he truly believes in Maine.”