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LePage No Fan of Maine House Speaker and Attorney General

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AUGUSTA, Maine - Gov. LePage is hoping that legislative Democrats will work with him in his second term. But there are a pair of top Democrats he says he would prefer to leave out of the mix.

 

LePage says he is encouraged by the expected election of Republican Sen. Mike Thibodeau as the next president of the Maine Senate. But at the other end of the State House, Democrats control the Maine House, where current Speaker Mark Eves is expected to win a second term. And that's a prospect that does not exactly thrill the governor.
 

"I don't know what's going to happen in the House, but I'll make no bones about it, the man that's there now will do whatever the union tells him to do," LePage said.

And LePage is no fan of organized labor. He wants the Democrats to select someone other than Eves as the next presiding officer of the House. While both men have had their share of run-ins over issues, such as welfare reform and Medicaid expansion, Eves says the next legislative session provides a chance for the governor, Republicans Democrats and independents to find ways to move the state forward.

"We need to govern, we need to go shake each other's hands," Eves said. "I've left a message for the governor and Sen. Thibodeau," Eves says, "and anticipate, hopefully, meeting with them both very soon and really extending my hand and shaking their hand and congratulating them on their wins and say that we need to get to work, and we need to work together and find those areas we can agree on."

The governor doesn't simply want someone other than Eves as House speaker. He also has reservations about some of the state's constitutional officers and he plans to make those known to lawmakers.

"I will urge, and I seriously say this, if you want to help the state of Maine, I urge you to make some changes at the attorney general's office and the treasurer's office, we need different people there," LePage said.

The governor said he was not happy with what he called the veto power of Maine Attorney General Janet Mills over rules proposed by the governor's office. Mills, a former Democratic lawmaker and one-time vice-chair of the Maine Democratic Party, has advised the governor that some of his proposals would not meet constitutional muster and has declined to represent him on those grounds. Mills says she has to follow the law.

"In all of those matters, we respect the rule of law, we respect the constitution," Mills said. "I guess if I'm being criticized for respecting the Constitution, I'll accept that criticism and I'll welcome it."

Maine's constitutional officers are elected by a majority vote of the Legislature under a process enshrined in the Maine Constitution. LePage says that it's time for those officers to be directly elected by voters. The change would require the passage of a bill for that purpose in the Legislature, which requires two-thirds support in the House and Senate. LePage says he will personally lead that effort.