In rare, kind words about a Democratic leader, Gov. Paul LePage said Thursday that congressional contender Jared Golden of Lewiston no doubt “made a fine Marine.”

But as a lawmaker, the governor said, the assistant majority leader in the State House of Representatives “has not gotten the  job done.”

A two-term lame duck, LePage, who has frequently clashed with the Legislature, said Golden should be talking to voters about what he would do if elected as Maine’s 2nd District member of Congress instead of “calling me out in one of his TV ads.”

“News flash: I am not running for Congress, and he is not running for governor,” LePage said in his weekly radio address.

Golden said he only mentioned LePage in passing “to give an example of how not to be a leader.”

Golden, who served in the Marines before attending Bates College, is one of three Democrats competing in a June 12 primary for the chance to take on U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, a two-term Republican, in the November general election. He faces environmentalist Lucas St. Clair and bookstore owner Craig Olson in the primary.

One of Golden’s television advertisements shows him standing in Lewiston’s Kennedy Park, telling viewers “this is where Paul LePage said lawmakers like me should be shot” and then mentioning that he has “been shot at before as a Marine in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

If LePage did not want his words mentioned, Golden said of the governor’s criticism, “I guess he shouldn’t have talked about executing lawmakers.”

Three years ago, LePage told a passenger rail advocate that Lewiston’s legislators should be “rounded up and executed in the public square,” apparently for their stance in favor of passenger rail service to Lewiston and Auburn.

In his criticism of the legislator, LePage did not mention what Golden’s ad cited about him.

“His ad doesn’t illustrate his vision of how Maine will be better off with him in the House of Representatives in Washington,” LePage said. “Golden criticizes me instead of telling the people of Maine what he will do in Congress.”

But Golden said he has mostly talked in his advertising about issues that matter to Mainers, from health care to equal pay to campaign finance reform.

Golden said he brings up LePage in part to show that Golden is “tough enough to absorb these kinds of attacks” and then let them roll off his back.

scollins@sunjournal.com

The latest advertising campaign for Democratic congressional candidate Jared Golden of Lewiston includes reference to one of Gov. Paul LePage’s harsher comments about some state lawmakers.