Posted on 06/09/2010 7:26:41 AM PDT by tonyome
AUGUSTA, Maine Waterville mayor Paul LePage, a favorite of many in the conservative tea party movement, has been nominated by Maine Republicans to be their candidate for governor.
LePage, a career businessman, says he's shocked by the overwhelming backing as he handily defeated six other candidates. He says it indicates Mainers want smaller government and more fiscal responsibility.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
This is a candidate I will back strongly. An admirable struggle to the top.
People in ME have had an unbounded thirst for big government for many years. Even Margaret Chase Smith was on the “big government” team. It will take a real departure from the norm in ME for Mr. LePage to win. People there really believe that government is there to “help them.”
Maine turned liberal in the 80’s, when sharp divisions emerged between rural North and suburban South. The factora were massive immigration from Massachusetts (So. Maine is a commutable distance to the high-tech cluster north of Boston) and retreat of the paper companies in the North. Then-senator George Mitchell engineered the upset using labor sentiments in the North, liberal infection in the South, and his political clout.
Blame I-95.
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