He brought down the house at his inauguration when he shook his fist toward the media box & said, "You're on notice! I've inherited a financially-troubled state to run. Observe, cover, but don't whine if I don't waste time responding to your every whim for your amusement."
During his campaign for governor he was talking to commercial fishermen who are struggling because of federal fisheries rules. They complained that President Obama brought his family to Bar Harbor & Acadia National Park for a long Labor Day holiday & found time to meet w/union leaders, but wouldn't talk to them. LePage replied, "I'd tell him to go to hell & get out of my state." Media crucified LePage, but he jumped 6 points in the pre-election poll.
The Martin Luther King incident was a political sandbag which brought him national exposure. The 'lame stream' media crucified him, but word on the street is very positive.
The NAACP specifically asked him to spend MLK Day visiting black inmates at the Maine State Prison. He told them that he would meet w/ALL inmates regardless of race if he were to visit the prison. The NAACP balked & then put out a news release claiming falsely that he refused to participate in any MLK events He read it in the paper for the 1st time the next morning while be driven to an event & went ballistic because none of the reporters had called him for comment before running the NAACP release.
He arrived at that event & said on TV camera, "If they want to play the race card on me they can kiss my butt" & he reminded them that he has an adopted black son from Jamaica & that he attended the local MLK Breakfast every year that he was mayor of Waterville. (He started his morning there on MLK Day.)
He then stated that there's a right way & a wrong way to meet w/the governor & he put all special interests on notice that press releases, media leaks & all demonstrations would prove to be the wrong way. He said any other group which acted like the NAACP could expect to be at the bottom of the governor's priority list!
He then did the following, & judging from local radio talk show callers, his popularity increased even more: The state employees union complained because he waited until 3 p.m. before closing state offices & facilities & sending non-emergency personnel home during the last blizzard. The prior governor would often close offices for the day w/just a forecast before the 1st flakes. (Each time the state closes for snow, it costs the taxpayers about $1 million in wages for no work in return.)
LePage was CEO of the Marden's chain of discount family bargain retail stores before election as governor. He noted that state employees getting off work early could still find lots of retail stores open to shop. So, he put the state employees on notice by announcing: "If Marden's is open, Maine is open!"
He told state employees: "We live in Maine in the winter, for heaven's sake, & should know how to drive in it. Otherwise, apply for a state job in Florida !"
Governor LePage symbolizes what America needs; Refreshing politicians who aren't self-serving & who exhibit common sense!
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