Lawmakers press for impeachment of Maine’s abrasive governor

“Because of Paul LePage, Maine’s pristine image has taken a beating”.

He was criticized last week after saying out-of-state drug dealers with names like “D-Money, Smoothie and Shifty” sell heroin in ME and “half the time they impregnate a young white girl before they leave”.

Although impeachment activists in the House were unable to get their effort off the ground, they did win approval – in a party-line vote, of a code of ethics resolution calling for all lawmakers to affirm Maine’s values and principles. “Clearly, more than ever, the need to hold this Governor accountable to the rule of law is upon us”.

An impeachment order would be unprecedented. George Mitchell, William Cohen and Olympia Snowe.

LePage, elected in 2010 and re-elected in 2014, has said he did nothing wrong and the attacks on him are political and tantamount to a “witch hunt”.

Chipman says that despite the outcome, he’s glad the issue got some needed attention. He told the Portland NAACP to “kiss my butt”.

As for the speech, Thibodeau said it’s the governor’s prerogative to decline to deliver the address in person, but he also noted that the governor would be missing out on an opportunity to lay out his priorities not just to lawmakers “but to all Mainers”.

They’ve accused LePage of abuse of power. “The nasty rhetoric becomes part of the brand”. Governor LePage has said that “this back-room deal between cronies is exactly the kind of political corruption I came to Augusta to fight against”.

On Thursday, a group of nine lawmakers will try to set the impeachment process into motion by pressing for a vote to launch a private investigation into eight of the governor’s actions. But even that’s far from assured. They would prefer to censure him.

The vote effectively ends efforts to impeach the governor.

LePage said he felt Eves was unqualified and had been offered the job as a political favor.

LePage’s foes wanted to look into a number of allegations that they say shows a pattern of bullying and abuse. The governor’s office has called the claims “frivolous”. “ME people deserve to hear the governor’s vision for the state and his proposed solutions”, Eves said in a statement.

“You know in your heart that what’s going on around here is not right”.

The order lists several alleged instances of abuses of power by the governor. It likely wouldn’t survive long because it would eventually go to the Republican-controlled Senate.