Free Republic

The states challenging President Obama’s deportation amnesty have already won the first round in court after the case landed in the lap of Judge Andrew S. Hanen, a Bush appointee who issued a scorching rebuke to the Department of Homeland Security last year, accusing it of refusing to follow border security laws. It could hardly have been a worse outcome for Mr. Obama, who, in order to preserve his policy, will now have to convince a judge who is on record calling his previous, less-extensive nondeportation policies “dangerous and unconscionable.” Led by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, the 20 states...

Gov. Paul LePage’s administration is facing a potential loss of federal funding to administer its food stamp program over concerns about state’s decision to put photos on cards used to access the benefits. Federal officials said in a letter to the Maine Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday that recipients are being given information that makes it seem like they’re required to have their photos placed electronic benefit transfer cards, even though the program is voluntary. The Republican governor’s administration must make it clear to recipients that their decision to not have their photo placed on the card...

Kaci Hickox didn't go to the polls. She instead opted to vote via absentee ballot on Monday, her lawyer told ABC News. Hickox's boyfriend, Ted Wilbur, told ABC News today, "We voted yesterday in absentia, and you can guess who we voted for. We encourage all the good people of Maine to join us in returning decency to Blaine house." Blaine House is where the Maine governor, now Paul LePage, has traditionally resided for nearly 100 years. The incumbent Republican who's in a competitive race for re-election had tried to force Hickox to take a blood test. LePage has polled...

Maine Could Elect The Country's First Gay Governor – But LGBT Activists Are Split Democrat Mike Michaud is in a neck-and-neck race with incumbent Paul LePage but he persistently voted against gay rights legislation before coming out Jon Swaine 1 November 2014 The man who may soon be the first openly gay person elected as a governor in the US sat silently in Maine’s house of representatives as an older colleague embarked on a homophobic tirade against the anti-discrimination proposal that they were considering. “I don’t see them as gay because they never smile, they have got that withdrawn look,”...

Ever since Mitt Romney's "47 percent" disaster-gaffe in 2012, national Republicans have tried to shirk their image as welfare-hating, green eyeshade–wearing budget choppers. Even Paul Ryan, the former head of the congressional Ayn Rand fan club, now talks about expanding the scope of welfare programs to return more of their dependents into productive workers. But Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R), himself the product of a poor and disordered childhood, is not following the national herd. He's promising more cuts, and not exactly masking his rationale. Last year, he even took up the 47 percent number, saying "about 47 percent of...

Republican Governor Paul LePage has pulled ahead of Democratic Congressman Mike Michaud by one point in Maine's gubernatorial race. LePage picks up 41% of the vote to Michaud's 40% in a new Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Maine Voters. Independent Eliot Cutler is in a distant third with 16% of the vote. One percent (1%) prefer another candidate in the race, while three percent (3%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.) (Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or...

My Aroostook County Maine field sign for 2014.Maine is all in for our Tea Party Guvnah, Paul Lepage! Have a look-see.

Maine Gov. Paul LePage is not thrilled with the way the NFL has handled the suspension of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, and said today on a radio show that he intends on boycotting the NFL and will be sending NFL Commissioner Roger Gooddell a letter criticizing the relatively light punishment Rice received for beating his fiancé unconscious. "They care so little about our women and our children that they’re going to hire these barbarians who go and hit their wives and their kids and they’re gonna get a slap on the hand? And some guy got a year...

AUGUSTA, Maine—Democratic lawmakers are calling on Maine Gov. Paul LePage to apologize for his remarks comparing the Internal Revenue Service to the Gestapo. The Democratic leaders of the House and Senate issued a statement Sunday calling LePage's language "intentionally offensive." Rep. Emily Cain and Sen. Justin Alfond said Holocaust survivors and Word War II veterans who witnessed the terror of the Adolph Hitler's secret police "should not be trivialized for political shock."

Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) said Tuesday that state regulations governing child labor are hurting the state’s economy, according to the Portland Press Herald. “We don’t allow children to work until they’re 16, but two years later, when they’re 18, they can go to war and fight for us,” LePage said at an agricultural trade show, according to the paper. “That’s causing damage to our economy. I started working far earlier than that, and it didn’t hurt me at all. There is nothing wrong with being a paperboy at 12 years old, or at a store sorting bottles at 12...

Gov. Paul LePage told a group of Republicans last week that President Obama "hates white people," according to two state lawmakers who say they heard the remark directly. The governor made the comment during a Maine Republican Party fundraiser on Aug. 12 at the home of John and Linda Fortier in Belgrade. According to the invitation, the fundraiser was a "meet and greet" for LePage and first lady Ann LePage, and an opportunity to meet Rick Bennett, the new party chairman. The lawmakers, both Republicans, confirmed the comment when asked by a Portland Press Herald reporter but asked that their...

Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) on Thursday went after a Democratic state senator by using a vulgar metaphor involving lubricant. LePage told reporters that state Sen. Troy Jackson “claims to be for the people, but he’s the first one to give it to the people without providing Vaseline.”LePage then walked away, later returning to explain his comment.“That comment is not politically correct,” he said. “But we gotta understand who this man is. This man is a bad person. He doesn’t only have no brains; he has a black heart.”(Full audio can be found here, starting at about the 2:25 mark.)....

AUGUSTA, Maine — The often-brash governor of Maine used crude language Thursday to express his frustration over the state budget, targeting a Democratic opponent with a sexually vulgar phrase to describe how he believes he is taking advantage of the people. Gov. Paul LePage made the remark about Sen. Troy Jackson to journalists from two television stations and one newspaper Thursday.

Shortly after Barack Obama won reelection in November, New Jersey governor Chris Christie pointed out that Republicans’ cloudy political prospects had a bright silver lining. “One of the reasons you have 30 Republican governors in America, and why we’re the only organization to add Republican strength,” Christie said, “is because people see us getting things done.” Christie’s stance countered most of the elite postelection commentary, which gleefully pronounced the Republican Party’s political irrelevance. But the governor was right. Since Obama first took office in 2008, Republicans have picked up a net nine governorships, bringing their total to 30 states,...

Gov. Paul LePage is hinting that he'll call a special legislative session this fall to bring up an undisclosed issue, but says it will "push the envelope." The Republican governor's comments were recorded at a GOP event in Bangor on Wednesday night and appeared Thursday in political columnist Mike Tipping's blog. In it, LePage says he has a plan to call lawmakers into special session but said the legislation he's looking at is being reviewed by the attorney general. While not divulging the topic, LePage says it's what a lot of other Republican states have done. “I think we can...

I’m a Republican. I’m also a compassionate conservative. That’s why I’m troubled by remarks this week by Maine Gov. Paul LePage suggesting that the unemployed are jobless by choice. “To all you able-bodied people out there,” he said, during a speech at his state party convention, “Get off the couch, and get yourself a job.” Well, I understand that the cost of providing unemployment benefits to Maine’s 51,000 jobless is taxing the state’s treasury. But, I simply don’t believe that most of those out of work in the Pine Tree State– including the able-bodied of whom LePage spoke – prefer...

LePage wants benefits fraud crackdown PRESQUE ISLE -- Gov. Paul LePage said Thursday that he wants to more than double the number of fraud investigators in the state to crack down on those who abuse the benefits provided by the Department of Health and Human Services. "The last administration did not want to prosecute fraud," he said during a town hall meeting in Presque Isle. "We do." LePage said there are only 11 fraud investigators across the state now, but he thinks there should be two per county -- which would total 32. The comments came as LePage and members...

He left home at 11 after a rough childhood, spending time on the streets, yet managed to finish both high school and college. He later went on to work as a Pepsi-Cola truck driver, at a meat-packing plant and as a short-order cook. YouTube

One of the big victories for Maine taxpayers were the pension reforms included in the recently passed state budget. The changes limit the growth of retirement benefits for 75,000 teachers and state employees. This reduces the stifling $4.1 billion pension debt to $2.4 billion, a stunning 41%.

Maine GOP Gov. Paul LePage followed through with his decision to remove a mural depicting the history of the workers' movement from the state's labor department lobby, a spokeswoman said Monday. "The mural has been removed and is in storage awaiting relocation to a more appropriate venue," said LePage press secretary Adrienne Bennett in a prepared statement. "We understand that not everyone agrees with this decision, but the Maine Department of Labor has to be focused on the job at hand."