By Michael Shepherd - April 5, 2022
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Good morning from Augusta.

What we're watching today

In a freewheeling speech, the former governor wrapped red herrings in with elaborations on policy proposals. As the November 2022 election draws nearer but remains in a low-key campaigning phase, we are seeing more stump speeches from former Gov. Paul LePage, the Republican running to oust Democratic Gov. Janet Mills. One from an event last week in Auburn with former state Sen. Eric Brakey last week shows how LePage can wheel from jokes to unsubstantiated claims to policy ideas and distractions in front of a friendly crowd.

Before he formally announced his long-teased run, LePage and his allies were touting a "2.0" version of the bombastic past governor that was more focused on policy. He has mostly run a quiet campaign since a kickoff event in September, basing it on talk radio appearances, smaller Republican events and business visits. He will appear at the opening of a Maine Republican Party multicultural center in Portland on Tuesday.

Through all of this, we have still gotten a lot of the old LePage. The Brakey event was a good example. It has gotten the most attention for his claims about voting. Among other things, he alleged voters were bused from Massachusetts to Waterville when he was the mayor to vote in a 2009 same-sex marriage referendum. LePage, who was bolstering a new push for voter identification laws in Maine, said this was reported to the office of Matt Dunlap, the Democratic secretary of state at the time. But Dunlap said it was not reported to the state then and called the claim itself "a blatant lie."

There were parts that seemed to come from left field. At one point, LePage called Russia's primary and secondary education system "far superior than the United States" in part because it starts for many at 18 months. (Russia's education system is somewhat well-regarded, but it is not generally seen as better the American one.) He joked that the introduction of vodka there leads gains to stall out in the teenage years.

At other points, LePage begins to fill in some details of key policy proposals. He has said he would again try to repeal the income tax if he is elected in November and told the room of supporters how he would try to do it: start with lower-income people and work his way up until "all the Floridians are going to come back to Maine." (He said he has a fundraiser in his former state this month being put on by Mainers.)

With LePage, it is important to keep your eye on the actionable details rather than the eye-popping remarks. While Republicans are banking on a good national environment in 2022, voter ID proposals are going to be dead on arrival unless they win the Blaine House and sweep the legislature. Maine voters overturned their repeal of same-day registration in 2011, indicating some risk of putting the idea front and center in a Democratic-leaning state after former President Donald Trump's false claims of a stolen election.

News and notes

— Sen. Susan Collins of Maine will not be the only Republican backing Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson. Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said they would support President Joe Biden's pick on Monday, clearing the path for Jackson's confirmation.

— The Democratic-controlled Maine Legislature is looking increasingly like a national battleground. On Saturday, the election forecasting site CNalysis changed its rating to say the House is slightly tilting in minority Republicans' direction. It says Democrats still hold an edge in the Senate. FiveThirtyEight called it "one of the most competitive legislatures in the country" on Tuesday.

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What we're reading

— Two former defense secretaries, William Cohen and Jim Mattis, called Russian leader Vladimir Putin a war criminal during an appearance at the University of Maine in Orono on Monday. Both cast doubt on Putin's ability to lead his military and said recent atrocities including a massacre in a suburb of Kyiv, Ukraine's largest city, rest solely with the autocrat. Mattis said Putin is going to "lose this gamble, and he’s going to lose it big."

— Maine was among the top beneficiaries of earmarks that returned to Congress this year, with the state seeing the fifth-highest share of awards per capita in a $1.5 trillion bill recently signed into law by President Joe Biden, an Associated Press analysis found. Both Collins and Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from the 1st District, sat on committees that shepherded the bill. The process was driven by senators who could request unlimited awards compared to a cap of 10 requests from House members.

— U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, is cosponsoring a bill that aims to prevent Putin and associates from using cryptocurrency to evade severe economic sanctions, something that members of the Russian government have suggested in recent weeks.

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Follow along today

10 a.m. The House and Senate are in. In the House, votes could come on a universal health care measure opposed by most of the health panel, a bill that would shield access to eviction or small-claims court records and a measure reining in the use of non-disclosure agreements by employers. Watch the vote on a resolution supporting Ukraine backed by every House member except Reps. John Andrews, R-Paris, and Jeff Evangelos, I-Friendship.

The Senate looks set to spike a measure that would make it easier to release voter-approved bonds if the governor objects. Watch the House here and the Senate here.

11 a.m. LePage and Maine Republican Party officials will open the multicultural center on Munjoy Hill in Portland.

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📷 Lead photo: Former Gov. Paul LePage pumps his fist as he walks off the Augusta Civic Center stage at his campaign kickoff event on Sept. 22, 2021. (Portland Press Herald photo by Shawn Patrick Ouellette via AP)

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