In a State!

If it's true that as Maine goes, so goes the nation, I think it's time to toss some underwear into the old handbasket.

It used to be that the South had dibs on outlandish politicians. Now that crazy has gone viral, whoever is in charge of The Crazy Rankings is going to have a tough job. Heck, it's hard to even know what IS crazy any longer. One doesn't even know where to start...!

How about Maine and Gov. Paul LePage?

You may recognize Gov. LePage's name because he removed a labor mural from a Maine Department of Labor office because it depicted... um... labor. (He was overruled--it's going back up.) Or maybe you heard when he wanted to relax some of the state environmental laws and chose to have the chemical industry write them for him.

(Just as an aside, one of the recommendations in the chemical folks' "Kid Safe rules" was about removing regulations BPA--the chemical in plastic bottles that is believed to be troublesome. After the governor commented that the worst thing that could happen would be that some women grow a little beard, things became hairy when women responded by posting their pictures--complete with a little beard--on a Facebook-inspired protest.)

Or maybe his name came up when it was reported that he'd said that he'd tell President Obama to go to hell and suggested that the NAACP could kiss his butt.

He championed cutbacks in teacher and state pensions, but excepted his own from any reduction. His wife claimed homestead exemptions on homes in both Maine and Florida. He hired his 22-year-old daughter to be assistant to his chief of state, at a salary of $44,000, with an additional $15,000 estimated benefits, plus the added dividend of living in the Governor's Mansion with her parents. Sometimes rank is exactly that... (phew!) rank!

I began reading up on Gov. LePage after I read of his push for An Act To Enhance Access To The Workplace For Minors," as part of his attempt to beef up industry in the state. The bill allows employers to pay teenagers under the age of 20 less than minimum wage, but to extend their hours. So, the teen would be earning $5.25 per hour, but could work more hours.

Kids under 16 could work up to four hours on school days and caps on school day working hours for older teams were eliminated entirely. What does the governor say about it?

"I went to work at 11 years old. I became governor. It's not a big deal. Work doesn't hurt anybody."

What was the title of that bill again?

What I learned about the man really confounded me. I gleaned this information from newspaper accounts, his site, and a well-annotated Wikipedia entry.

Gov. LePage was the second oldest of 18 children in a house with an alcoholic, abusive carpenter father. Their town, Lewiston, Maine, had become known as Little Canada in the mid 1800's after a flood of French Canadian immigrants settled there. In fact, French was the spoken language in his family.

Indeed, he did begin working at 11, having run away from home after a beating. He was homeless for two years, taking any job he could find: working in a strip joint, shining shoes, washing dishes, working in stables. Since English was a second language for him, he scored poorly on the verbal portion of the SAT and was able to get into college only after the late Senator Peter Snowe (Olivia Snowe's first husband) interceded on his behalf. LePage became class president and editor of the college newspaper, then went on to earn his MBA at the University of Maine.

He worked for a lumber company which was doing poorly and had dismal safety record. He studied the causes of the employee accidents, then instituted safety policies like work glasses and eight minutes of stretching exercises before a shift. The changes reduced accidents and saved enough in Compensation premiums to keep the company from Chapter 11.

Later he became general manager for a chain of discount salvage stores. He became a city councilman, then mayor of Waterville, Maine (populations 15,000+) where he says he increased the town's rainy day fund from $1,000,000 to $10,000,000.

He won the election as governor with 38% of the vote. His policies--like the child labor bill-- are backed by the Tea Party and the Christian Civic League of Maine.

Maine has fewer than 1,400,000 people and a projected two-year-budget shortfall of $47,000,000. Attracting industry there can't be easy. The man has a tough job. Still, it's hard to reconcile some of his actions with his personal history.

I wonder to what extent the Tea party and the CCL of Maine influence him. I hope no one has asked to see his birth certificate, but I'll bet some voters are shaking their heads and wondering, "Gov. LePage, who's your daddy?"