Residents react to LePage controversy
HOULTON, Maine — “Disgusted.” That was the first sentiment Lynn McBride of Houlton expressed when she first heard of comments spoken by Maine Gov. Paul Lepage last month about black and Latino drug dealers and an obscenity laced voicemail that followed to a lawmaker ahead of the November election.
McBride, who said she is “not a fan” of the governor, still said that she has supported some of his policies in the past.
“I was raised in a household where if someone won an election, you put your weight behind that person and tried to support the policies they put forth that you believed in,” she said. “I thought he did a pretty good job his first few years a good chunk of the time. But these past few years it has been just one controversy after another, and not just here in Maine, we have national comedians making fun of us.”
After LePage made the remarks regarding the race of drug traffickers that were widely thought to be racially insensitive, the governor apologized but refused to resign. It was then that legislative Democrats led an effort to call a special session to consider sanctions against LePage, but that effort failed earlier this week after Republican leaders in the House and Senate declined to poll their caucuses about reconvening.
Elaine Bouchard of Fort Kent, who was shopping in Houlton Thursday, said she too found the governor’s remarks “disturbing.” The former teacher said she “expected to see more of an apology” from LePage.
“Children need to see that it is never a good idea to judge an entire race or class of people,” she said. “We have seen so many examples in the past of that failing.”
Still Peter Nickerson, a LePage supporter, said that although he does not agree with some of the governor’s comments, he believes the governor is working to do the right thing for the state.
“I wish that he could communicate more productively,” he conceded Thursday. “But in the end, I believe that he is working to bring in more businesses to Maine, which in the end will benefit all of us.”
