Gov. LePage takes a pass on State of the State speech

A majority vote in the Democratic-controlled Maine House would be all LePage’s critics need to kick off an investigation.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – Long before Donald Trump laid waste to political correctness, there was Maine Gov. Paul LePage.

A spokeswoman for the governor has called the claims “frivolous”.

The Maine House has begun a sometimes contentious debate this morning on whether to investigate Gov. Paul LePage, a move that could lead to the impeachment of the Republican chief executive.

While nobody expects LePage to stay true to his word and actually step down in the face of so many people calling for his impeachment or resignation, the vast number of people who have signed the petition highlights just how petty the governor is being by threatening to bail on the traditional State address, which normally takes place sometime in the first half of February. Critics of LePage on Thursday, Jan. 14, took up a longshot bid to impeach him over allegations of abuse of power. LePage also once told the Portland NAACP to “kiss my butt”.

But the call for an impeachment inquiry in ME is about more than one set of remarks.

Instead, House lawmakers voted 96 to 52 to indefinitely postpone debate after Republican leader Ken Fredette introduced a motion to pre-empt any action on the impeachment order.

“I can’t say that I blame the Governor” said Senator Mason (R-22), “liberals in the House of Representatives have been playing political games, distracting lawmakers from addressing real issues by raising the specter of impeachment”.

To outline the scale of the emergency, LePage said that 400 people had died from drug overdoses since 2014 and more had been murdered in drug deals gone bad.

LePage responded by calling the impeachment effort “nonsense” and “foolishness”.

“You know in your heart that what’s going on around here is not right”. She said there was no evidence he committed a crime when he pressured Good Will-Hinckley, an organization that serves at-risk young people and runs a charter school, to rescind the job offer to Eves.

The governor commented on the state’s drug “pandemic” as part of an hour-long talk on “moving ME from poverty to prosperity”.

LePage’s removal seems unlikely, however, as it would require a two-thirds majority in the Republican-controlled state Senate.