AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Candidates in Maine’s gubernatorial race said the state should return to civility after eight years colored by Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s attacks on lawmakers and opponents.
The Associated Press polled Maine’s 16 Republican, Democratic, independent and third-party registered candidates for governor ahead of the June primary. House Republican leader and candidate Ken Fredette did not immediately provide responses to the AP’s questions.
Candidates - even those who praised LePage’s fiscal legacy - largely agreed that the next governor shouldn’t lob personal attacks at lawmakers.
“There is nothing wrong for fighting for what you believe in, but it should be done with respect and without personal attacks,” said Republican candidate Mary Mayhew, who headed the state Department of Health and Human Services until May 2017.
Maine’s next governor will face key issues left unresolved by lawmakers, rising state revenues and the aftermath of ballot referendum campaigns. The term-limited LePage, meanwhile, has sworn he’ll work up until his last day in office.
CIVILITY
Maine’s next chief executive will succeed a governor who once said he’d point a gun between a Democrat’s eyes, left a threatening voicemail asking the lawmaker to “Prove I’m a racist,” and referred to journalists as “pencil terrorists.”
Meanwhile, partisan spats have left lawmakers at gridlock. Democratic House Speaker Sara Gideon recently issued a statement apologizing for calling LePage and Fredette’s tactics “terrorism.”
Candidates say it’s time for politicians to end the rancor. “They fail to see how a deteriorating process has resulted in poor and false choices that have harmed our state,” said state treasurer and independent candidate Terry Hayes.
Attorney General Janet Mills, running as a Democrat, said dysfunction means voters are resorting to ballot questions for issues like Medicaid expansion.
Republican Sen. Garrett Mason praised rigorous debate.
Democratic candidate and former House Speaker Mark Eves unsuccessfully fought to impeach LePage. “Tense debate is part of the legislative process. Bullying is not,” said Eves, who is in federal court claiming the governor violated his civil rights for threatening to withhold state funds to force a charter school operator to rescind a job offer.
FIREARMS
Candidates agree they want to honor a heritage of gun ownership and hunting in Maine, where the constitution declares every citizen’s right to keep and bear arms “shall never be questioned.”
While some independents and Democrats - including veteran and businessman Adam Cote and former Biddeford Mayor Donna Dion - call for expanded background checks and regulations on bump stocks and high-capacity magazines, Mason and auto-repair chain owner Shawn Moody support hiring armed officers to protect school children, and addressing stigmas surrounding mental health.
Gun control supporters tread lightly in Maine, one of a dozen states allowing individuals to carry concealed firearms without a permit. Voters rejected a 2016 proposal to extend background checks to all gun sales and transfers except those between family members.
A gun was the weapon used in 11 out of 18 murders and non-negligent manslaughters in Maine in 2016, according to state police . That same year, 123 Mainers died from firearms, compared with 144 in 2015 and 109 in 2005, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .
MEDICAID EXPANSION
Over 70,000 low-income Mainers qualify for Medicaid coverage in July under a 2017 voter-approved law.
But $525 million in annual federal funding is in limbo because LePage has refused to ask for it unless lawmakers provide money for Maine’s share of expansion - under his terms. Supporters are suing to ensure expansion happens.
Independent candidate Ethan Alcorn, a landscape contractor, said he hopes lawmakers will address Medicaid expansion. If not, he offered: “We would have to find a way to fund it because it was voted in by the people.”
Meanwhile, Democratic candidates and several independents said they’d immediately expand Medicaid. While several supporters said Maine has enough money for its share of expansion through May 2019, former mayor and state Sen. John Jenkins, an independent, proposed expanding the sales tax to pay for Maine’s share.
Republicans, including Mason, warn Medicaid expansion will bankrupt the state and point to hundreds of millions in Medicaid debt LePage paid off following a previous expansion.
Mayhew said she won’t expand Medicaid. Moody criticized “out-of-state” interests for spending large sums of money on expansion without providing a way to pay for it.
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