Gov. Paul LePage surprised many Thursday by saying that he would take over as his own education commissioner.
LePage, who withdrew his nominee for the post this week due to opposition from lawmakers, later clarified the comment, but the controversy continues.
LePage made the initial comment in a speech in Lewiston Thursday morning, but later told reporters outside his office that he will not actually take over the post of Education Commissioner.
He says he will sign any needed documents after acting Education Commissioner Bill Beardsley’s term expires this spring.
“I will act as the commissioner if they need a signature. That’s all. It’s not a big deal,” he says. “I am just tired of having [expletive] shows by the Senate and the legislatures.”
The governor says he will not resubmit Beardsley’s nomination to this Legislature, which he says has destroyed the confirmation process by playing politics.
“You understand what I am saying here?” he says. “This Legislature has played absolutely foolish silly games. And I am not going to play no more, we have too much work to do.”
LePage’s comment and subsequent clarification quickly moved through the State House via social media. The Maine Education Association issued a statement questioning the legality a governor doing the job of education commissioner. Some lawmakers put out statements as well.
“I assumed he was joking because the commissioner of education’s job is gigantic,” says Bangor Democrat Victoria Kornfield, co-chair of the Education Committee.
Kornfield says she’s also baffled as to why LePage was so convinced that Beardsley would be rejected by Democrats on the panel. She says the commitee has not had a hearing or even a formal discussion about the nomination.
“How does anyone know what our opinion was or what our conclusions were?” she says. “We never had a hearing. We didn’t condemn Bill Beardsley, you never heard anyone of us on the committee say anything negative about Bill Beardsley.”
But the Senate co-chair of the panel, Republican Brian Langley of Ellsworth, says he had been informally told by Democrats on the panel that the Beardsley nomination was in trouble.
“What’s your feeling? What’s your sentiment? And the sentiment was there that it wasn’t going to be positive, sort of giving me the heads up that might be the way that it might go,” Langley says.
Langley says it’s unfortunate that LePage has decided to forego any new nominations for the post this session, as the Department of Education deserves a full-time commissioner and deputy commissioner. But he says he’s confident that the department’s professional staff will get its work done in the meantime.
“The people up there have been up there a long time,” Langley says. “They will continue to do the work. While it won’t be the most opportune way to do it, folks here will plug ahead and do it.”
The practical effect of the governor’s move is that Bill Beardsley will continue to run the Department of Education on a day-to-day basis without being confirmed as commissioner.
Some lawmakers say they will review the law governing confirmations to see whether what LePage is doing circumvents the constitutional process.
