The downward spiral of the state's paper-making industry has been marked by lay-offs, shutdowns and re-openings. But the announced closure of the Verso mill in Bucksport has struck a nerve in this year's gubernatorial race.
Pulp cutters and paper makers may seem a world away from the urban centers of southern Maine, but big paper built the economies of northern and eastern Maine. And the announced closure of Verso Paper in Bucksport - on the heels of the bankruptcy filing of Great Northern Paper in East Millinocket - are subjects that Maine's next governor cannot afford to ignore.
Industry experts say these two developments, affecting nearly 1,000 workers directly, and another 3,000 by ripple-effect. Yet when Verso corporate executives decided to announce the Bucksport closure, LePage says he was among the last to know.
"We heard about it two minutes before they told the employees," he says, "so I think we should have known much quicker."
Independent challenger Eliot Cutler says that illustrates exactly how disconnected LePage was to Verso. Cutler says he himself had open lines of communication to Verso executives, and that if LePage couldn't see the Bucksport closure coming, a quick conversation with company executives anytime over the last four years should have offered a clue.
"If I had spent time with the president of Verso yesterday and had learned - as Gov. LePage should have or must have learned - that this mill had been losing money for six years in a row, if that was the case, how did he not know that?" Cutler said.
"Anytime something like this happens, those who are in office at least have a greater likelihood of being impacted by that than a challenger who wasn't in office and didn't have anything to do with these things," says Mark Brewer.
Brewer is a University of Maine political science professor. He says the plight of Maine's paper companies will undoubtedly prove to be an issue that has legs in the gubernatorial elections a month from now. Cutler's opponents have accused him of politicizing the issue, by going to GNP in East Millinocket and criticizing a multi-million dollar tax credit deal that has the state on the losing end.
Democrat Mike Michaud held his own press conference in Brewer Thursday, where he rolled out a list of policies he would undertake to improve the industry's future as governor. When asked whether this was also an attempt to politicize the developments at Verso, Michaud cited his personal history as a long-time former employee of Great Northern Paper, and an East Millinocket resident.
"This is personal to me," he said. "I worked in the industry for over 29 years. I know a lot of the workers at all of those mills that have been closed down, and the fact that any political candidate would try to politicize it is wrong, That's not what I'm doing; it's part of who I am."
LePage also called a press conference on Verso. He highlighted the administration's Rapid Response team from the Department of Labor to conditions on the ground in Bucksport. Then he blamed Michaud for contributing to Democratic policies that helped set the stage for the problems plaguing the paper industry.
"He has been an empty suit for a long time and, all of a sudden, he gets this great intellect on a Thursday afternoon on the second day of October," LePage said. "Where's he been for the last 30 years? He got us in the mess we're in."
All three candidates pledged to deliver plans aimed at improving the future of the paper-making market in Maine.
