LEWISTON — Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage has withdrawn from Thursday’s Maine Public Broadcasting Network Your Vote 2010 debate scheduled at Bates College. According to a press release issued by MPBN, LePage campaign spokesman Brent Littlefield notified the station at 4 p.m. Wednesday that LePage had decided instead to “meet with voters” as part of […]
Paul LePage
Posted inMaine
Cutler says attack ads show ‘they’re afraid’
PORTLAND — As independent gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler began his Monday news conference decrying the “character assassination” campaign waged against him by the proxies of his Republican and Democratic rivals, a man and a woman entered the candidate’s Commercial Street headquarters holding mailings distributed by the Maine Democratic Party. One mailer, showing an image of […]
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Official: LePage tax exemption allowed in Florida
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — A Florida county has closed its investigation into a tax exemption claimed by the family of Maine Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage on a Florida home, concluding that the $1,400 tax break was allowed under state law, a tax official ruled Monday. In a letter to LePage’s lawyer, the property appraiser […]
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Race for Governor 2010: Jobs, business development
The latest figures from Maine’s Department of Labor put the unemployment rate at 8 percent, slightly below the national average. High jobless claims and the economy are national issues. But several candidates in the Maine gubernatorial race have localized the problem, saying the state isn’t doing enough to create jobs and encourage business growth. Some […]
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Gubering our way toward a new governor
Why would anyone want to be Maine’s next gubernator? Or, even gubernatrix? After all, our gubernaculum is facing an $800 million deficit and and voters are plenty angry. And angry people, as we all know, are hard to guberno. Yes, they are all actual words, words which did not survive the transition from Latin to […]
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Maine Democrats attack LePage on nuclear power
PORTLAND (AP) — The Brunswick Democratic Town Committee is targeting Maine Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage over remarks he made about nuclear power. On Thursday, the committee unveiled a website targeting LePage’s support of nuclear power. It cited a radio interview before the June primary in which LePage said that 20 years from now he’d […]
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Hospital debt irks LePage
AUGUSTA (AP) — Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage on Thursday accused Democrats, including Blaine House rival Libby Mitchell, of doing too little to pay down a nearly $400 million debt that the state owes hospitals for Medicaid services. “Decisions made in Augusta are putting a burden on the backs of Maine hospitals,” LePage said following […]
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Candidates endure nasty surprises on the campaign trail
Candidates for statewide office never know what will come back to haunt them, and the race for Maine governor has already been full of “gotcha” moments. For gubernatorial candidate Libby Mitchell, it became a party photo showing the laughing candidate holding a plaque with a sticker identifying former President George W. Bush as an “international […]
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Sending back federal money seems unlikely
One of the sidelight issues in the current campaign for governor has become Paul LePage’s belief, stated several times now, that the state should only receive back from the federal government an amount equal to what it contributes. That may be a noble thought, but it seems impractical and would likely deprive the state and […]
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New poll shows Mitchell and LePage in statistical dead-heat
The results from today’s Critical Insights poll are showing Democrat Libby Mitchell running even with GOP Paul LePage, a significant change from previous polls giving the Waterville mayor a double-digit lead. Also noteworthy are demographic crosstabs showing LePage polling strong in the 18- to 34-year old demographic, while Mitchell leads with Franco-American voters. For up-to-the-minute […]