FREEPORT, Maine — James Carville was the keynote speaker at the annual Democratic Party Muskie lobster bake fundraiser and he delighted the partisan crowd with his branding of Republican Gov. Paul LePage as an ideologue and Tea Party supporter. He said there is a fundamental difference between LePage and the Democratic nominee for governor, U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud.
"He is a man of an ideology," Carville said of LePage. "Every morning that he gets up he thinks, 'What can I do to advance my ideology?' And the difference is when Congressman Michaud gets up every morning it’s, 'What can I do to help people?'"
Carville says the national Democratic Party considers the governor’s race in Maine one of the most important in the country. He said LePage’s ideology will cost him support in the election.
"One cares about the people of Maine, one cares about the Tea Party," Carville told reporters. "And I will give him, he doesn’t try to hide it, that’s what he is and that’s what he does every day."
Carville said LePage is “somewhat of a coward — it’s always somebody else’s fault," and that LePage never takes responsibility for anything that goes wrong in his administration.
Brent Littlefield, a spokesman for the LePage campaign, said Democrats have made a habit of name calling and Carville is a master at it.
"Carville is great at name calling, and makes a sport of it and is entertaining, but name calling is not going to solve the problems of the state," Littlefield said.
Littlefield said LePage has a track record of job creation and economic development and that whatever name calling the Democrats want to do will not detract from that record.
