Gov. Paul LePage has long been known for his personal letters to Mainers and they don’t always end with “Love, Paul.” In fact, in these letters the barbs can be frequent.
On March 14, Neil Gallagher of Brunswick sent the governor an angry letter lamenting his use of “wanted” posters at recent public appearances. The posters depicted people LePage labeled “job killers,” including staff from the Maine People’s Alliance, the AFL-CIO and the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM).
“I keep thinking that the governor and his craven staff cannot sink any lower…” begins Gallagher’s letter, which ends with his pledge to make another donation to the NRCM in an effort to neutralize LePage’s stance against the organization.
LePage replied with the suggestion that Gallagher’s donation is a waste and that the NRCM’s environmental policies are preventing economic development. LePage highlighted the environmental group’s stance against large-scale metallic mineral mining in Maine.
“it is easy for residents of wealthy coastal towns to defend the policies of the Natural Resources Council of Maine,” wrote LePage in his March 22 letter, which was provided to the Bangor Daily News by the administration. “As they enjoy low rates of unemployment, nice homes and neighborhoods and thriving and successful business, residents of these towns may be unfamiliar with the harsh crisis facing rural Maine, especially in Northern and Downeast Maine. … The job-crushing, anti-business policies of NRCM are preventing rural Mainers from getting the kind of jobs they need to raise themselves out of poverty.”
Everett “Brownie” Carson, who for more than two decades led the Natural Resources Council of Maine, is running this year as a Democrat to represent the Senate district that includes Brunswick. If he wins, he will combine three things that irk LePage: Southern Maine, environmental activism and legislators.
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