In the latest local controversy to grip the Maine State House, Gov. Paul LePage (R) reportedly made crude sexual remarks about a Democratic state senator captured by Portland’s WMTW news crew on Thursday.
LePage reportedly said that Democratic state Sen. Troy Jackson “claims to be for the people, but he’s the first one to give it to the people without providing Vaseline,” according to WMTW reporter Paul Merrill. The governor added that Jackson “has no brains, and he has a black heart.”
LePage announced at a rally Thursday morning that he would veto the state’s proposed budget compromise. Jackson delivered his party’s response to the veto threat, claiming that LePage had been unwilling to work with Demcratic leadership.
When the WMTW reporter asked the governor if he was aware that the public would view his remarks as offensive, he replied “It ought to, because I’ve been taking it for two years,” according to Merrill.
Maine Democrats called LePage’s controversial comments “a sad and embarrassing chapter in Maine’s history.”
“Paul LePage is a classless bully who is unfit to hold public office of any kind,” Maine Democratic Party Chairman Ben Grant said in a statement. “This is the chief executive officer of our State, the highest elected official, the public face of Maine, and he’s making comments that any 14 year-old would know are out of line.”
LePage does not appear on camera in the video accompanying WMTW’s report.
