# Paul LePage

Paul Richard LePage (born October 9, 1948) is a Maine Republican Party politician who has served as the 74th Governor of Maine since 2011. LePage was elected governor of Maine with a plurality in a five-candidate race in 2010 and was re-elected with a stronger plurality in a three-candidate election in 2014. LePage has made eliminating Maine's income tax, fighting illegal drugs, and education reforms such as charter schools high priorities for his administration, which has garnered controversy as he has repeatedly vetoed bills regardless of their merits to pressure the Maine Legislature into implementing his proposals. He has also drawn attention for controversial statements he has made about various subjects, his dislike of Maine newspapers, and his administrative actions. He was threatened with an unsuccessful impeachment effort for using his office to have the Democratic Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives fired from a new job at a nonprofit organization.

## Quotes

* Obamacare is forcing the American people to buy health insurance or else pay a tax. Our health care system is moving toward one that rations care and negatively impact millions of Americans.
** Statement of Governor LePage on Gestapo Comment (July 9, 2012)
* The Holocaust was a horrific crime against humanity and frankly, I would never want to see that repeated, maybe the IRS is not quite as bad — yet. ... They're headed in that direction.
** As quoted by Seven Days. (July 12, 2012)
* We the people have been told there is no choice. You must buy health insurance or pay the new Gestapo — the IRS.
** As quoted by Seven Days. (July 12, 2012)
* I apologize to Jewish Americans if they feel offended. But I also apologize to Japanese Americans that were put in prison during World War II, and I also apologize to those people that were accused of being communists during McCarthyism, because that's not the American way.
** About LePage's statements on the IRS. As quoted by Seven Days. (July 12, 2012)
* I'd like to shoot him.
** About cartoonist George Danby. (June 26, 2015)
* These aren't the people who take drugs, these are guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty. These type of guys. They come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they sell their heroin, then they go back home. Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young white girl before they leave, which is a real sad thing because then we have another issue we've got to deal with down the road.
** As quoted by The Times. (January 8, 2016)
* My brain was slower than my mouth.
** As quoted by The Times. (January 8, 2016)
* I have a heart. I have a heart for Maine people.
** As quoted by The Times. (January 8, 2016)
* It's hard to hear what they're saying. Have you ever tried to say, 'What's the special today?' to somebody from Bulgaria? And the worst ones — if they're from India. I mean, they're all lovely people, but you gotta have an interpreter. Or how many of you try to return something on Amazon on a telephone?
** About workers with accents. (April 25, 2016)
* There's the all mighty powerful ones like Mr. Khan — which is a con artist himself, and he uses the death of his son, who's an American soldier, which we respect and honor, and he uses that to go after Trump, which I found very distasteful.
** In an interview with Boston radio host Howie Carr. (August 25, 2016)
* You know and I know and everybody in the state knows that the overwhelming majority of the people that have been arrested this year, coming out of Connecticut and New York, have been black and Hispanic, it's not a matter of race, it's a matter of fact. Are there some white ones? Yes, there are some white people.
** At a town hall meeting in North Berwick. (August 25, 2016)
* Mr. Gattine, this is Governor Paul Richard LePage. I would like to talk to you about your comments about my being a racist, you cocksucker. And you—I wanna talk to you. You wan—I want you to prove that I'm a racist. I've spent my life helping black people, and you little son-of-a-bitch socialist cocksucker. You—I need you to—just frickin'—I want you to record this and make it public, because I'm after you. Thank you.
** Voicemail to Maine State Rep. Drew Gattine. (August 25, 2016)
* Look, the bad guy is the bad guy, I don't care what color he is, when you go to war, if you know the enemy and the enemy dresses in red and you dress in blue, then you shoot at red. ... You shoot at the enemy. You try to identify the enemy and the enemy right now, the overwhelming majority of people coming in, are people of color or people of Hispanic origin.
** In a State House press conference. (August 26, 2016)
* It's really one thing to have one party behind you, it's another thing not to have any party behind you.
** In a radio interview. (August 31, 2016)

## Quotes about LePage

* The governor shouldn’t be making those comments, even though I know he doesn’t care for my stuff because I pick on him quite a bit in my cartoon, but it’s always within the boundaries of fairness and free speech and satire.
** George Danby, about LePage's comments on him. (June 26, 2015)
* In a real sense, the new “get tough on opioids” policies have been fueled by the mistaken perception that most illegal opioid dealers are black or Latino. Consider the remarks made by then Maine governor Paul LePage at a town hall forum in 2016. The governor reassured attendees that his beef was not with Mainers who merely “take drugs.” Bear in mind that Maine is the whitest state in the union. His outrage, LePage said, was aimed squarely at out-of-state drug dealers: “Guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty . . . they come from Connecticut and New York, they come up here, they sell their heroin, they go back home.” But, LePage warned, before these packs of mythical drug pushers head home, they usually “impregnate a young white girl.”
** Carl Hart Drug Use for Grown-Ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear (2021).
* Jokes about shooting someone aren’t funny. Shooting cartoonists especially, post-Charlie Hedbo. It was shocking and tasteless.
** Anthony Ronzio, about LePage's comments on cartoonist George Danby. (June 26, 2015)