Maine’s governor is certifiably insane and probably should be arrested.
I don’t think he has any chance of being reelected.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
I don’t think he has any chance of being reelected.
Why do you say that? He only get elected with 38% of the vote last time:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine_gubernatorial_election,_2010
That’s the thing isn’t it. With Dems and Independents reliably splitting their vote, he readily could be re-elected.
YEP.
if he hasn’t lost any of the stupid people that voted for his ass in the first place, he could be re-elected
And last I heard Cutler is running again. So, who exactly is Cutler serving? Or have Mainers wised up this time?
Far as I know, as an ex-Mainer, many Democrats still blame the Democrat in that race (Libby Mitchell) instead of Cutler. Not exactly sure why.
Mainers hate politics. They hate politicians. And they hate political parties.
Even Democrats — and I’ve been a state convention delegate or alternate to every convention but one since ’86.
Perot beat Poppy Bush here, in one of Bush’s home states. Two of the last five governors have been independents. The highest elected Green in the country was elected in Maine.
When Maine does feel compelled to elect politicians, it will always choose the politician jumping up and down and saying ‘I’m not a politician!’ the loudest (Angus Cutler, Eliot Cutler) or who looks and sounds the least like a politician (Susan Collins, Paul LePage)
Libby was the first woman Speaker, and the first woman President of the state senate. Term-limited out of the House, and the Senate, there wasn’t any place left to go, really. She was endorsed by the Maine AFL-CIO and the Maine branch of the NEA. She was, in other words, a politician.
And a flatlander — born in SC, degrees from Furman and Chapel Hill.
Is this your usual trolling?
Dead accurate. Challenge me on any of it.
The contribution surprised me, that’s all. I certainly claim no knowledge of internal Maine politics.
Been in the political trenches here for just short of 30 years.
After what Jock McKernan (Mr. Olympia Snowe) did to my pension, it’s not a hobby, it’s what stands between me and dying in the poorhouse.
Maine has always from my standpoint (being a resident) more than a clusterfuck when trying to discuss government issues. Most people treat it as a person or an opposition that is hindering their day at the crack of dawn.
I remember I was living next door to a gun store in my city and I remember going in that store to just check it out and the owner was showing someone how to use rifle scope & he said matter of factly “Now just aim it at city hall”
So for Booman & company, let me tell you something you don’t KNOW: People like Lepage are a dime a dozen in this state, if he’s gone, he will be replaced.
Politics is all about posturing and that’s why Lepage is the governor & a ethical moral statesman isn’t. Because the truth is PROGRESSIVISM has nothing to offer any Mainer w/ the pitch of “spend more money on education” & “cleaner air”
And believe me fellow readers, this is the goddamn script line over and over & easy to turn off people. The democrats never learn…. they just dust off that old script pitch line & collect their salary same as the republicans around here.
Musta been Lewiston, because wherever you live in Lewiston, unless it’s a Bates dorm, you’re next door to a gun store.
I’m always dubious about declarations like ‘Mainers hate politicians,’ but I can’t argue with any of that.
Except when I was trying to get Allen elected, Mainers kept telling me they were voting for Susan Collins because she was the Senator. They didn’t like her, but she was Senator. What can you do?
Collins won in the first place because she was the not-Joe Brennan — that and a little help from Rensenbrink and the Greens.
I love Joe Brennan dearly — he basically made George Mitchell, for example, but the Simpsons‘ Diamond Joe Quimby stereotype killed him in his Senate race, and Collins has been dug in like a tick ever since.
He was tied in the last big poll (Portland Press Herald/UNH).
It remains to be seen if any of this changes.
And in any event, enraged, engaged minorities roll apathetic, detached majorities all the time.
are the same 3 running again this time? I read at one point that they were but Cutler had the edge?
ok, correction I read that Micheaud has the edge and ppl aren’t supporting Cutler, who is nevetheless running again??
Yeah, that’s where it stands now. From a distance this makes Cutler look like he’s on an ego trip and is willing to put the state back into LePage’s hands for another four years. (Of course, there’s still lots of time until November.)
It is more disgusting that there has no chance of being impeached.
Beginning to think that evolution is a circular process and that conspiracy theorists are a sign of devolution’s gravitational pull.
But heh, he’s an incumbent. There will be followers.
Some folks can’t get enough of the crazy. Exhibits A and B: Michele Bachmann, in office since 2007, Louie Gohmert since 2005.
LePage is not going to be re-elected. What happened last time was a fluke. The Democrat Libby Mitchell ran a piss poor campaign and many voters who wanted to keep out LePage actually coted for Elliot Cutler who came in a close second. This time, it is highly unlikely that Mike Michaud will make the same mistakes that Libby Mitchell made 4 years ago. Sooner or later, the anti LePage votes will settle on the most likely winner and the polls will begin to reflect that. It is still stunning that a flaming asshole such as LePage can poll 38%, but that is his ceiling and it is a an awful one for an incumbent governorseeking re-election.
LePage does sound independently crazy, but it he also backed by Koch or ALEC type groups?
Both, actually.
ALEC basically walked in with a ring binder full of bills when LePage and the new Republican-controlled legislature went in in 2010, and said “Pass this”.
The legislature flipped back in 2012, though.