Thank You!
The Bangor Daily News has projected Paul the winner!
Thank you Maine!! Read Governor-Elect LePage’s Victory speech at the LePage Transition team website.
VOTE Today! Find Your Polling Place
VOTE!
Not sure where to vote tomorrow? Visit these links to find your local polling place, and make sure you encourage friends and family to GET OUT AND VOTE!
State of Maine Voter Information Lookup
Get directions to local polling place using Google Maps: Google Vote
Still undecided? Learn more about Paul LePage with this video, and read his Plan for Maine here.
Senator Mitchell Flip Flops On Student Social Security Numbers
Senator Mitchell Flip Flops on Student Social Security Numbers
Senate President was for collecting numbers before she was against it
Waterville, Maine — Senate President Libby Mitchell, a cosponsor of legislation granting authority to the Maine Department of Education to collect and report individual student social security numbers, told the Maine Sunday Telegram this weekend that she now opposes the collection of social security numbers on privacy grounds.
Senator Mitchell’s reversal on the matter comes weeks after the Maine Department of Education reported a database system error that allowed unauthorized access to restricted data. According to news reports late last month, the department took the step of deleting student social security numbers from its data systems and told school districts to stop submitting student social security numbers.
“Last year Senator Mitchell cosponsored legislation allowing the state to collect student social security numbers,” said Dan Demeritt, Press Secretary to the LePage for Governor Campaign. “Now that parents and school boards are expressing privacy concerns, she has come out against a bill she cosponsored just one year ago. The Department of Education has failed to protect private information, parents are outraged and Libby Mitchell is running for political cover.”
When asked if he supported collecting students’ social security numbers to help develop Maine’s longitudinal data system, Paul LePage responded,”No, I believe we should protect our children’s privacy.”
### End of Statement. Sources Linked Below ###
http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/Insight-Gubernatorial-candidates-address-education.html
MST, 10/17/10: Do you support collecting students’ Social Security Numbers to help develop Maine’s longitudinal data system?
Libby Mitchell: No. Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in our state and I would be hesitant about creating another reservoir of information for identity thieves. We must balance the need for accurate data with the privacy rights of our students.
An Act To Improve the Ability of the Department of Education To Conduct Longitudinal Data Studies, Public Law:
http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/bills_124th/chappdfs/PUBLIC448.pdf
Sponsors of the Bill LD 1356: http://www.mainelegislature.org/LawMakerWeb/sponsors.asp?ID=280032497
LePage tells Insurance and Financial Advisors: Maine’s Budget Not Balanced
Baldacci-Mitchell Budget Shorts Maine’s Hospitals $400 Million
Portland, Maine — At a candidate forum this morning, Paul LePage, the Republican candidate for Governor, challenged that notion that the Baldacci-Mitchell Budget is balanced.
“It is easy to say your budget is balanced if you don’t pay your bills,” said Paul LePage.” And under the leadership of Governor Baldacci and Senate President Libby Mitchell, we have short changed our hospitals by $400 million dollars.
“Hospitals are major employers in communities throughout Maine and when the State does not pay its bills, working Maine families end up paying instead,” added LePage.
Recently reported budget woes and job losses directly tied to the state’s failure to pay its bills include:
· A $1.4 million operating deficit at Maine Coast Memorial Hospital in Ellsworth and an accumulated four-year deficit in state payments of $12.8 Million.
· Central Maine Healthcare in Lewiston recently laid off 35 employees in Lewiston as part of a cost cutting measure citing $56 million the state owes in back MaineCare payments.
· Pen Bay Healthcare in Rockport reportedly cut 19 positions in part because of the $7 million owed the facility in back MaineCare reimbursements.
“With the state not paying its fair share,” explained LePage, “Hospitals have been forced to put Maine people out of work and charge private payers higher prices to make up the difference.”
“For my opponent, balancing the budget with IOUs and gimmicks is just business as usual. It is not how we do business in the private sector, and I will fight to change the practice in Augusta. As Governor, I will get our fiscal house back in order.”
Paul LePage’s comments about Maine’s budget came at the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors Southern Maine Chapter’s gubernatorial forum. The event was at the Holiday Inn West on Riverside Street in Portland on Thursday, October 7, 2010.
Mitchell Campaign Stops Running False Education Ad
WABI in Bangor Reports Ad is Off the Air
Waterville, Maine -- Maine Candidate for Governor Paul LePage applauded today’s news that the Mitchell Campaign has pulled its false education attack ad off the Maine airwaves.
Yesterday, LePage supporters hosted a press conference in Augusta promoting the candidate’s strong support for education as Mayor of Waterville and his plans to put students and taxpayers ahead of the education unions. Senator Carol Weston, who serves on the Legislature’s Education Committee, contrasted LePage’s plans to put students first with Libby Mitchell’s record of support for the education unions.
In its ad, Senator Mitchell’s campaign cited an August 18, 2010 interview with Paul LePage on Maine Web News as a source for its taxpayer-financed attack. Speaking at the press conference yesterday the publisher of Maine Web News, Jarrod LeBlanc, set the record straight.
“That is a complete mischaracterization and distortion of Paul LePage’s and my conversation,” said LeBlanc referring to the interview cited by Mitchell’s attack ad. “Paul LePage never said he would cut even a single penny from students and schools. He never said it.”
WABI of Bangor is reporting today that the Mitchell campaign has stopped running the ad.
“I have lived a Maine education success story,” said Waterville Mayor Paul LePage. “I have gone from the streets of Lewiston as a child to creating jobs in one of Maine’s largest companies because of the education I received in Maine schools.”
“I am pleased that Senator Mitchell has pulled her false attack ads from the air,” added LePage. “Students need to come first. That is my approach, and I urge anyone who may have been misinformed by Senator Mitchell’s false attacks to visit my website to see how I plan to advance education in Maine.
Turning the Page
View an outline of The Solutions online or Click here to download your copy of “Turning the Page”- New Ideas to Get Maine Working.
Turning the Page
LePage Races with Supporters at Benton Fundraiser
BENTON – Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage was on the local circuit Monday night, chatting with supporters and racing in the go-karts at an amusement park.
Rusty and Selena Bell, owners of The Fun Park, hosted the fundraiser. It’s one of many the LePage
team will need in order to run a campaign that is not accepting public money.
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“We’ll make up for Clean Elections with grassroots fundraising,” LePage said.
“This election is going to be won with volunteers, not with dollars.”
Publicly-funded political campaigns, LePage said, should be limited to legislative races, which
involve part-time public servants.
“With Clean Elections,” he said, “you can get the state money, then you can turn around and take
PAC money. “Unlike my opponents, this is going to be heavily grassroots.”
Rusty Bell said he appreciates LePage’s no-nonsense approach.
“He’s a regular guy,” Bell said. “Political answers just get old. He speaks about what he believes in.”
Learn More About Paul – view his video
View the video below to learn more about Paul Lepage, Maine’s next Governor.
Maine GOP united behind LePage
In Waterville on Wednesday, Paul LePage held a Unity Rally to show the Maine GOP is united as we move forward.
Excerpt from Bangor Daily News:
Republican gubernatorial nominee Paul LePage gathered with some 150 supporters and the other six candidates in the GOP primary Wednesday in an effort to send the message that the Republican Party is united.
LePage, who surprised many by garnering 38 percent of the vote in last Tuesday’s seven-way primary, said his success is an indication that Maine people are ready for a change in how Maine government operates. He pledged to make creating jobs the centerpiece of his campaign and, if he wins, the governorship.
“The business of Maine is going to be business, come November,” said LePage, flanked by the six Republican gubernatorial candidates who lost in the primary and numerous other state and local party members.
Paul LePage wins the Republican nomination!
THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
MERCI BEAUCOUP!!
Tonight… Folks tonight…was not a win for any particular group… it was not a win for any particular ideology or any particular faction… Tonight was a win for the State of Maine and our future!
You know my story – I was homeless at the age of 11, I had to work hard to put myself through high school and college with some help from caring others.
Now having been homeless at the age of 11 I am on the doorstep to the Blaine House in Augusta. This is the story of the American Dream. However, that dream is going to be lost in Maine if we don’t begin to tighten our belts in state government and live within our means, if we don’t reform welfare so we value the hard work I did to get to where I am today and if we don’t create jobs in Maine, now.
Tonight… Tonight… is the beginning of that change!!
I want to acknowledge and thank the other candidates who were in this race. They all have some good ideas I have heard along the way and I look forward to incorporating those into my administration when I am elected your Governor. Now we must re-double our efforts.
I can just hear them now… I can hear the other party – they have spent years scaring the people of Maine into believing that Republicans don’t care about them.
But this room is full, FULL of average, everyday Maine people and this guy right here who was homeless at the age of 11 is here to say we have more in common with you then they do and we are here to fix Maine’s broken government.
As I said tonight was not a win for any particular group… it was not a win for any particular ideology or any particular faction, tonight was a win for Maine.
So together, as one party, united in our common purpose, let’s go forth.
Let’s go forth and create a new day for Maine.
TOGETHER WE CAN CHANGE MAINE!!
