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The Universal Notebook: Gov. LePage? Maybe it won't be so bad
Jul 26, 2010 10:50 am
Edgar Allen Beem
Photo:
Photo: Freelance journalist Edgar Allen Beem lives in Yarmouth. The Universal Notebook is his personal, weekly look at the world around him.
What we have in the race for governor is the most liberal Democrat, the most conservative Republican, a Democrat-turned-Independent positioning himself in the moderate middle, and a couple of guys wasting their own and other people’s money tilting at windmills.
Given the mood in the state and the country, I’m sorry to say I think the race is Paul LePage’s to lose.
People tend to vote for people with whom they can identify – people like us. LePage, a Franco-American who rose from poverty to run the Marden’s thrift store chain, is a made-for-recession candidate. He is thrift personified. The average Mainer can identify with him – humble origins, up by his bootstraps, a success in business, a kick-ass mayor of Waterville, and everyone shops at Marden’s.
I was just re-watching the Meet the Governor videos (meetthegovernor.com) that Portland art dealer Andy Verzosa produced during the primaries, asking candidates to address Maine’s creative economy, and the differences among the three major candidates was very instructive.
Republican LePage could be talking about anything when he prescribes cutting taxes, reducing the size of state government and reducing government regulation as the keys to the success of the creative economy. I'm not sure he has the slightest idea what the creative economy is, but he’s sure it will flourish along with everything else if we pinch enough pennies.
Libby Mitchell, the Democrat, talks about her support for government spending on the arts – the Percent for Art program and the historic renovation of the State House. Something tells me this is not going to be a good year for politicians identified with government spending. And I don’t think being the only publicly financed candidate will help.
Independent Eliot Cutler had the best response of the bunch. He, too, sees cutting spending as job No. 1 in Augusta, but he then goes on to lay out a four-point program to promote the creative economy – create an arts magnet high school, designate arts districts in every major town, tie the arts more closely to tourism, and tie the arts more closely to job training.
If Cutler, who has something of an officious demeanor, can somehow acquire the common touch between now and November, I can see him coming from the back of the pack to upset LePage. As it is, Cutler will probably just take moderate votes away from Mitchell, helping to ensure a LePage victory.
But maybe a LePage administration won’t be so bad. Lord knows Maine state government could use an overhaul. If LePage restricts himself to fiscal restraint and doesn’t get nutty with Tea Party social issues, he may end up just being another James B. Longley.
Jim Longley was, like LePage, a Lewiston native, and, like Cutler, a Democrat-turned-Independent. He chaired the the Maine Management and Cost Survey Commission and, when the Legislature did not enact the commission’s cost-saving recommendations, ran for governor on a fiscal responsibility platform. Longley upset Democrat George Mitchell and Republican James Erwin and, as promised, served just one term (1975-1979).
Gov. Longley spent most of his time in office battling the Legislature, in 1977 setting a record for bills vetoed (49) and for vetoes overridden (22). That’s what I see ahead for a Gov. LePage: lots of opposition in the Legislature, not to mention the public outcry when he tries to lop off social programs.
Maine survived Jim Longley and it can survive Paul LePage, too. And if the economy rebounds, as it did toward the end of the Longley administration, the Tea Party may be over, Paul LePage can go back to peddling tube socks, and it will be time to elect Libby Mitchell Maine’s first woman governor.
Comments
John Frary says:
ERPeay says:
LePage supporters keep going on about how he walks on water because he cut expenditure in Waterville and still maintained services. That should only impress us if we knew what there was to be cut in Waterville. Certainly the state, with its four-day civil servants and impoverishment of all the towns already seems to have cut everything but the water pipes. Let's hear some specifics (something Mr LePage has been very short on) about what more he thinks he can find to cut in the state budget. If he ever does so, which I somehow doubt, we may find we don't like it much.
Richard Lawson says:
There is a great difference between voting for the mayor of a small city and Governor of the state. Mr. LePage did not have to bite the tea bagger bullet to be elected Mayor but he has in this run for Governor. I also have a problem with his comments on the age of Sen. Mitchell, even with his half-hearted attempt to cover them. The teaching of creationism is indeed a social agenda, and as a retired teacher, I find that to be more than a minor issue.
ericblusk says:
Another throw-away, strawman argument. Help me out, EA Beem, which Republican candidate or elected official stands up and says "Because of my State Party platform, I must do XYZ or PDQ"? Snowe? No. Collins? No. ME House GOP leader Josh Tardy? No. Senate GOP leader Kevin Raye? No.
Are the folks from the Oxford County GOP the Tea Party itself? No again. I've seen three ME GOP state conventions. The platform fight was a sleeper in 2006, a blow-out fight in 2008, and a gotcha-surprise this year. People barely knew what they were voting for (certainly not about the Treaty of the Sea business).
I see the Tea Party demographics are 44% GOP, 31% Independent, and 21% Democratic. What brings them all together? I got a hunch it's......fiscal conservatism and not what the Oxford County GOP thinks should be in the ME GOP platform.
What brought the voters of Waterville together in voting LePage back into office vote after vote? Fiscal conservatism. If you don't like keeping a lid on state spending, don't vote for him. But throwing the ME State platform into the rationale simply means yer looking for an excuse to avoid voting Republican.
I had thot, EA Beem, you'd be old enough not to get hung up on labels. Labels didn't bother me when I voted for Clinton or Nader and it won't bother me when I vote for LePage.
eabeem says:
So what you're saying is that the GOP party platform is just nonsense that no one ever intended to support? If so, that's great. But I say again, if anyone wonders why Paul LePage is being asked about a social agenda, they only have to look as far as the platform. If he wants that monkey off his back, he should just say it's nonsense, throw the Tea Partiers under the bus, and march right into the Blaine House as Mr. Thrifty the fiscal conservative. If he can cut govt spending without cutting necessary services, more power to him.
ericblusk says:
Well, Mr. Lawson, you're at the Baseless Accusation Game again. For starters, what is the "social" agenda of the Tea Party? Fiscal conservatism and common sense on budgetary issues are now "social" agenda? If that constitutes a "social" agenda the definition has expanded to the point of including every topic under the sun, rendering it useless as a way of defining Some Thing's relative nature or value. Juan Williams of National Public Radio and VP Joe Biden and former US Civil Rights Commission director Mary Frances Berry tell me the Tea Party isn't a racist organization, so even high-placed Dems don't accept that's the "social" agenda of the Tea Party. Help me out -- what is their "social" agenda?
I can see you and Juliewriter are going to have a hard time accepting this next part, but based on results, the voters of Waterville don't think LePage is scary or is illogical to the point of not voting for him. The two narratives you're presenting don't appear compelling -- the voters from Waterville clearly disagree with you as to what is "logical" or "moderate". Waterville is 70% non-Republican, by the way.
The FACT is Waterville cut property taxes and managed to continue providing the same services. Imagine that: Efficiency in Government. As we stare down the gun barrel of a two-year, $1 billion State deficit (about 15% of the budget), answer me this, who had more to do with creating Maine's current budget and job environment, the current President of the Maine Senate with 24 years in the Maine legislature or the Mayor of Waterville?
eabeem says:
Until he demonstrates otherwise, I, for one, will give Mr. LePage the benefit of the doubt as a simple fiscal conservative. I won't be voting for him under any circumstances, but if you want to know why folks wonder about a hidden social agenda, take a look at the Maine Republican Party platform -- nut case conspiracy twaddle promoted by -- ta-da -- the Tea Party.
Richard Lawson says:
Mr. LePage has shown himself to be a run-of-the-mill tea bagger and we honestly don't need him leading us as Governor. Libby Mitchell is probably the most competent candidate we have had in my memory. She also brings an innate ability to work with the legislature, not waste time on the social stupidity ensconced in the Republican/tea bagger platform. LePage is scary to anyone who believes in logical, moderate government.
Juliewriter says:
Who will ask Mr. LePage the tough questions? Will Mr. LePage as governor call for closing Maine's borders with Canada, or not? Will Mr. LePage as governor cut the budget by eliminating the Maine Department of Education, or not? Does Mr. LePage believe in bi-lingual education, or not? Is Mr. LePage a Tea Party Candidate, or not? We must stop drooling over Mr. LePage's compelling personal story and his Marden's credentials and ask what would he do as governor.
ericblusk says:
And that, AJ Steen, is an unsubtantiated claim (that LePage has hinted at "frightening" social policies) and a cheap shot. We can expect more of this going forwards and I'll rebut it every time I see it. Demonizing Republicans as all concerned with social issues is a tiresome practice that needs to be called out as false.
In seven years as mayor, where's a LePage proposal to stick Creationism into the school curriculum? That's right -- there's never been one.
Apparently the largely Democratic and Independent voters of Waterville don't buy into that intrusive social conservative narrative, either -- Lepage has been the mayor since 2003 and was a city councilor before that. He wouldn't keep getting sent back to office by people from the other party if he were doing a bad job. And based on Waterville's rising credit rating and falling property taxes, he must be doing something right.
Juliewriter says:
1) LePage has made no statement in opposition to evolutionism.
2) "Creationism" is not part of his campaign pitch and has no presence in his record.
3) He was raised a Roman Catholic and attend the RC church. That Church has comes to terms with evolutionary theory. I may have missed an exception, but as far as I know no RC educational institution prohibits teaching it.
4) He favors allowing local school boards to permit a Creationist component It is unlikely than any will do so. The prohibition of evolutionary teaching is beyond unlikely.
5) The utilitarian argument for free speech is that truth must always win in the "market place of ideas" unless falsity is protected by the government (i.e., by the police) Are the evolutionists so lacking in faith in the truth of their theories they they panic at the very thought of a contrary point of view.
CONCLUSION: This is an issue without consequence.