LEWISTON, Maine (AP) - Former Republican Gov. Paul LePage won’t be voting in Maine’s presidential primaries on March 3.
The snowbird who lives in Florida in the winter has registered to vote in the Sunshine State, the Sun Journal reports.
LePage, 71, is registered to vote in Flagler County, Florida, where he and his wife, Ann, bought a house in 2018 in a gated golf course community in Ormond Beach.
The move isn’t a total surprise.
He told a radio show host that he was moving if Democrat Janet Mills was elected governor. She took office on Jan. 2, 2019, the same day that an election official said LePage registered to vote in Flagler County.
“I’m going to retire and go to Florida. I’m done with politics. I’ve done my eight years. It’s time for somebody else,” LePage said then.
The LePages paid $360,000 in 2018 for a one-story home with a swimming pool in a golf community in Ormond Beach, the newspaper reported.
After buying the Florida home, the LePages sold their Maine home in Boothbay Harbor. They’d previously sold another Florida home that Ann LePage bought in 2008, also in Ormond Beach.
Over the years, LePage said Maine’s taxes are too high, forcing snowbirds to declare their homes to be in Florida. Florida has no income tax, and property taxes are lower, the former governor said.
While they live in Florida, the LePages still return to Maine. Last summer, they worked together at McSeagulls restaurant in Boothbay Harbor, where the former governor tended bar for fun.
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