Gov. Paul LePage is expressing support for embattled Waterville Mayor Nick Isgro, saying in a letter sent to the president of Skowhegan Savings Bank that it was a mistake to dismiss him over a controversial tweet in which he criticized a school shooting survivor.
“Your decision to discharge Nick Isgro is a mistake you will likely come to regret,” LePage, a former two-term Republican mayor of Waterville, said in a letter to John Witherspoon, president and CEO of Skowhegan Savings Bank. “You have fallen prey to the leftist hate ideology that refuses to recognize free speech.”
LePage confirmed in a phone interview late Tuesday evening that he did send the emailed letter to Witherspoon, a copy of which was posted on the Facebook page Waterville Republican Party.
Isgro ignited controversy after tweeting “Eat it, Hogg,” in reference to Parkland, Florida school shooting survivor David Hogg. The Republican Waterville mayor, using his personal Twitter account, was responding to a story that Fox News would continue to back its host Laura Ingraham after she also made disparaging remarks about Hogg.
Isgro later deleted the tweet, but screenshots of it traveled far on social media, with the Maine Democratic Party releasing statements condemning the remark. A group of residents, including former mayor Karen Heck, on Monday, filed a recall petition effort with the city seeking to gather enough signatures to force a recall vote of Isgro.
LePage said in a phone interview that what Isgro said in the tweet does not rise to the level of firing him from the bank, where Isgro worked as a controller and assistant vice president.
“My point is, this issue, to me, is not a political issue,” LePage said. “This is a First Amendment issue. This comment doesn’t, in my mind reach the level of a business panicking and (Isgro) getting fired.”
Witherspoon, president and CEO of the bank, did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment on LePage’s letter.
On Monday, Witherspoon did confirm in a phone interview that Isgro no longer worked at the bank and he declined to discuss additional details. In a statement Friday, Witherspoon had condemned Isgro’s tweet, saying the bank was “disappointed and dismayed.”
“On behalf of the bank we apologize to those in the community who have been offended, including our own employees and the students in Florida, for what I would say was thoughtless and inappropriate behavior,” Witherspoon said in the statement.
LePage — who has himself been embroiled by many controversial statements as governor, including telling the NAACP to “kiss my butt” — said he has done considerably worse than what Isgro did and he did not get fired. The governor said a similar effort was tried on him when he was Waterville mayor and his employer at the time, Marden’s Surplus & Salvage, “hung tight” and supported him.
“Actions speak louder than words,” LePage said, referring to what Isgro has done while mayor, including efforts to help revitalize the city through a partnership with Colby College that has seen millions of dollars in new investment downtown.
“Under his watch, things are looking good,” LePage said in the interview.
The Waterville Republican Party also posted what it says is a letter written to Witherspoon from former Maine Republican Party Chairman Rick Bennett.
Bennett could not be immediately reached to verify the letter, but the Waterville Republican page tagged Bennett’s Facebook account in the post and said he had given permission to share it.
In the letter, Bennett says he is a customer of Skowhegan Savings Bank and is “appalled by your apparent dismissal of Nick Isgro after years of service because of an intemperate comment on social media.”
“This is a difficult age in which to run a business,” Bennett writes. “I think you have rendered it more difficult by assuming the role to police and pass judgment on all the comments your employees make on social media and other forums. This comment by Mr. Isgro by anyone’s fair estimation should not be a cause for dismissal. This punishment vastly overwhelms the infraction.”
Isgro himself also tweeted on April 3, apparently also in reference to the Laura Ingraham controversy, that if “you believe in attacking people’s livelihood because you don’t like their words, you don’t believe in a free society.”
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