In case you missed it, Paul LePage is attempting to revive old, failed ideas and is drawing new, strong criticism.
In one Bangor Daily News story today, a Maine housing expert said LePage’s proposal to address the housing shortage “doesn’t make a lick of sense”.
In another story, a Bangor State Senator blasted LePage’s effort to revive a failed plan to build a roundly-rejected forensic health unit: “I am astonished that he would come to Bangor and peddle a horrible idea that was roundly rejected by the community.”
Meanwhile, former Republican lawmakers who previously voted for Paul LePage are in the Bangor Daily News Editorial Pages endorsing Governor Janet Mills for reelection.
Here’s a quick selection of what Bangor area voters are reading:
Paul LePage’s idea to solve housing crisis ‘doesn’t make a lick of sense’
By Michael Shepherd
[LePage] has said he wants to increase the housing supply by getting school districts to consolidate and use old buildings for homes…The idea has rolled out in vintage LePage fashion: with almost no detail and in dribs and drabs at public events.
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The developer of the Gilman Street School project in Waterville said that while Maine should convert as many old schools as possible to housing, they should not be emptied out to do so. It could entangle developments that can already be politically fraught with other thorny education issues, said Kevin Bunker of Portland-based Developers Collaborative. “It doesn’t make a lick of sense, frankly,” Bunker said of LePage’s idea.
Paul LePage revives push for controversial Bangor mental health facility
By Sawyer Loftus
Former Gov. Paul LePage vowed to revive plans to build a mental health facility in Bangor if elected, an idea that was previously met with fierce condemnation…His latest proposal revived a controversial plan that ultimately went nowhere after Bangor leaders and residents came out against it over safety concerns.
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The facility would have been a privately run psychiatric detention center with barbed wire fences. No one from LePage’s administration reached out to Bangor officials about the effort, [then Mayor Joe] Baldacci said. “It was just like an insult to people in Bangor to be honest.”
We’re Republican former state senators. Here’s why we’re voting for Janet Mills.
By Joyce Maker, Roger Katz, and Chris Rector
As we experienced firsthand, LePage’s divisiveness, his animosity towards people, and his my-way-or-the-highway style of governing created chaos and contributed to dysfunction and gridlock that cost Maine people vital progress on issues ranging from health care, to education, to economic growth.
Here are just a couple examples: LePage led Maine into the first state government shutdown in more than a quarter century. He vetoed more bills than previous governors combined, and he did so not based on the merits of the bills, but out of spite towards the Legislature. He unilaterally closed Downeast Correctional Facility under the cover of darkness, shocking a community and devastating local businesses that relied on its residents as their employees. He repeatedly denied the will of Maine voters, from refusing to expand Medicaid to refusing to issue voter-approved senior housing bonds. He attacked lawmakers over and over, disparaged Maine people, and spoke poorly about our state.
His tantrums, distractions, and fighting – it’s just bad behavior that costs Maine.