At tonight’s gubernatorial debate, Paul LePage is going to lie…a lot. To help keep track of the lies, and make a fun game out of LePage’s inability to tell the truth, Maine Democrats have made the LiePage Debate Bingo Card, featuring some of LePage’s biggest lies from the campaign trail so far this year. Follow along to see which ones he breaks out at tonight’s debate!
Check the facts here or at mainedems.org/bingo:
(1) “Half of the Maine GOP is pro-choice”
(2) Baseless claims of voter fraud
LePage’s false voter fraud claims this year alone have been called out by the Lewiston city council, the Rockland Courier-Gazette, the Bangor Daily News, and even members of his own party.
(3) Governor Mills raised taxes
(4) Fentanyl is now a misdemeanor
(5) Maine is 50th in economic recovery
In fact, Maine's recovery has been highly ranked—even according to conservative economists and Maine’s average economic growth under Governor Mills has far exceeded that under Paul LePage.
(6) Solar energy can’t be used at night
As Maine Public pointed out, electric vehicles using solar energy run on batteries.
(7) “You never saw me touch abortion”
(8) Spent more on education than Mills
According to WMTW News 8, only one governor has met the obligation for the state to fund 55% of local school district costs—Governor Mills.
(9) Wind and solar are the most expensive energy
(10) Governor Mills is encouraging drug use
The Mills Administration supports proven harm reduction practices and distributing life-saving the life-saving overdose reversal drug naloxone, which LePage opposes and has called “fake security for drug addicts”
(11) Recycling tax
LePage is referring to a bill, cosponsored by Republican Sen. Rick Bennett (R-Oxford), which shifts the burden of disposing packaging materials away from Maine communities and onto the companies that create the materials. The program has not even been implemented yet, and it is false to describe the legislation as a new tax.
(12) MaineCare expansion is “bad for everybody”
MaineCare expansion has provided more than 95,000 people with health insurance. Since it was implemented, Maine has seen the largest decline in the uninsured rate in the nation.
(13) LePage has changed (free space)
(14) Mills is choosing what our kids learn in schools
Maine has local control of curriculums, meaning that choices about what is taught in classrooms are made by local school boards in conjunction with parents and teachers. Governor Mills is a supporter of local control, while Paul LePage wants to take it away.
(15) Falsehoods about Maine’s education system
LePage’s plan for Maine’s education system was panned by experts for showing that “LePage fundamentally doesn't know how education works in Maine.”
(16) The Rainy Day Fund is empty
When Paul LePage left office, the Rainy Day Fund stood at less than $300 million. Since then, Governor Mills and the Legislature have increased the Rainy Day Fund to a record high $896 million. In fact, Governor Mills has put more money into the Rainy Day Fund in her first term than Paul LePage added to it in his full eight years.
(17) He cares about Maine’s environment
LePage was a vehement opponent of land conservation and fought as hard as possible to stop the development of clean energy
(18) Mills has prioritized Portland
Born and raised in Farmington, Mills is the first governor from rural Maine in 40 years. She has fought for rural Maine. LePage failed it.
(19) LePage delivered the “biggest tax cut in history”
The LePage tax cuts were actually a tax shift—he paid for his income tax for the wealthy by gutting revenue sharing and education funding, which forced up property taxes around the state.
(20) He cares more about Maine’s coastal industries than Gov. Mills
The Mills administration stood up in court to fight burdensome federal regulations on our lobster industry. LePage is the one who wanted to let oil companies drill for oil in the Gulf of Maine.
(21) Florida is better than Maine
If LePage likes Florida he should have stayed there and kept getting the tax break that he tried to cut up here in Maine.
(22) Janet Mills is going to close the Shawmut dam
She isn’t.
(23) I support abortion rights
In the wake of Roe being overturned, LePage has refused to rule out signing into law a bill that would restrict abortion rights, and as recently as last month, he told the far-right Christian Civic League that he believes access to abortion should be restricted.
(24) Janet Mills wants to phase out gas cars