By Ashley Berry
Liberal Arts – Political Science

The year 2014 brought the State of Maine the opportunity for a fresh start, by removing a governor who cares more about businesses than about his constituents. During Governor LePage’s time in office, he has displayed questionable and appalling behavior that continues to taint the impression of Maine to the rest of the country. If he continues to run the state this way, he will continue to make a fool of us for the next four years.

LePage is becoming notorious for displaying bad taste when addressing the public. He once threatened to blow up the Portland Press Herald building while testing a flight simulator at a defense contractor. While this apparently was meant to be a joke, it was completely unfunny. If it was actually a joke, that is probably worse because he is making light of a horrible catastrophe which in no way should be made trivial. Unfortunately, we live in a world where threats must be taken seriously. It really shows poor judgment, especially when our country is so heavily criticized for our continued drone strikes. When our leaders make these types of crude comments, it only heightens the problems we can expect to see throughout our communities.

Another ridiculous statement he recently gave stated, “Everybody looks at the negative effects of global warming, but with the ice melting, the Northern Passage has opened up.” While yes, it is true that the increased ice melting has allowed companies to use the Northern Passage for shipping during the summer months, there are so many things wrong with this comment that it honestly comes off as borderline delusional. The world is on the brink of a crisis due to increased carbon production; the repercussions are not only negative, but they’re disastrous and could mean the end of our planet. The fact that he obviously does not grasp the concept of global warming puts to question his abilities to lead our state in the direction it so desperately needs to be removed from office.

LePage has also attracted attention at the federal level. Investigations that started in 2013 from the U.S. Department of Labor Office of the Solicitor GHYPERLINK “http://bangordailynews.com/2013/04/18/politics/federal-official-confirms-maine-labor-department-probe-state-workers-union-seeks-independent-review-of-lepage/?ref=inline” generally concluded that LePage and his administration pressured Department of Labor employees to favor employers instead of employees in unemployment cases. The conclusions of this report show that he is a governor that is more for businesses than his people.

However, despite the fact that I think that a toad could probably run this state better, he has won election and reelection, which means he must have some redeemable qualities. During an interview with the Maine Sunday Telegram he said, “You can only get things done if you challenge the impossible.” This is an admirable way to live and an even better mission to run a state on. With all of that being said he is a person who is very business-minded, which is fantastic quality for someone who runs a business but less desirable for the leader of our state. There is a lot of truth in saying that running a business is like running a state, and oftentimes politicians were or are in business at some point in their lives. Running also involves people, not just interacting with people but knowing that there is a whole state’s worth of people that depend on you.

What this state needs is someone who will work in favor of people instead of businesses. His latest in questionable decisions include The Maine Capital Investment Credit and the ousting of the President of the Maine Community College System. These aforementioned incidents are just the tip of the iceberg, and this series will delve beneath the surface and examine the actions that made him one of the worst governors in the nation.