{Opponents Mike Michaud & Eliot] Cutler both diverted attention from the standards, developed by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, which have been adopted by all but a few states.
"I think teachers are sick of being pushed from pillar to post," Cutler said, advocating trying those standards for a number of years before tweaking them.
At least three states have repealed using the Common Core standards and in April 2013, the Republican National Committee adopted a resolution opposing the standards [including a possible repeal in Maine].
He insisted on calling them illegal aliens and explained that "what most people in Maine don't want to acknowledge is that the 'il' makes it unlawful," referring to the spelling of the word "illegal."
"They are going to our schools, and that's a real problem for me," said LePage, who is running against Democrat Mike Michaud and independent Eliot Cutler.
"If we can't build a fence high enough . we ought to go to China and see how they built a wall," he said, which got laughs.
The starting wage at NexxLinx is between $8.50 and $9 per hour, plus incentives. That amounts to about $19,000 per year for employees who work 40 hours per week.
"People can cry and holler all they want, but if we don't reduce energy costs, we're going to have two Maines," LePage said. The other Maine, he said, is in the south, where there are higher-wage jobs. [A Nexxlink spokesman said the issue was finding good workers, not energy costs.]
A spokeswoman for Democrat Mike Michaud said "he is concerned that such efforts could make the drug more accessible to children and teens." Eliot Cutler, the independent in the race, said he had similar concerns, but that he believed the current prohibition on marijuana wasn't working.
Meanwhile, Republican Gov. Paul LePage demurred on the questions. His campaign staff referred the issue to the governor's communications staff in Augusta. "Gov. LePage has taken an oath to defend and uphold the Constitution and observe the laws of the state of Maine and he intends to do just that," LePage's press secretary wrote.
Maine has for years taken advantage of a federal waiver of work requirements for food stamp recipients. [Now LePage's] policy change would affect an estimated 12,000 residents who collect roughly $15 million in benefits, paid for by the federal government.
"People who are in need deserve a hand up, but we should not be giving able-bodied individuals a handout,'' LePage said. "We must continue to do all that we can to eliminate generational poverty and get people back to work. We must protect our limited resources for those who are truly in need and who are doing all they can to be self-sufficient."
LePage has set his sights on broad welfare reform. This spring, he introduced a four-bill package aimed at reducing fraud in welfare payouts and encouraging job-seeking.
"We all have family and friends who count on Social Security. I do not believe that Social Security is anything but a promise that we must keep. That's why I will always preserve and protect the Social Security system.
"While I work to protect Social Security and pensions, politicians knowingly and deliberately falsify information to get your vote. One of those is 30-year politician Michael Michaud. This is the same Michael Michaud who voted to cut Medicare by $716 billion. And the same Michael Michaud who voted to tax your Social Security. Luckily for all of us, Gov. King vetoed it and stopped it. I strongly agree. I will never allow politicians to tax Social Security."
"It doesn't matter what liberals call these payments, it is welfare, pure and simple," LePage said in the statement. "Liberals from the White House all the way down to Democratic leadership in Augusta believe that redistribution of wealth--taking money from hard-working taxpayers and giving it to a growing number of welfare recipients--is personal income. It's not. It's just more welfare expansion. Democrats can obfuscate the numbers any way they want. The fact is that we have created thousands of jobs, more Mainers are working, and their income is going up."
Rep. Mike Michaud, LePage's Democratic opponent in this year's race for governor, called LePage's comments "an insult to Maine seniors."
The federal data put Maine's personal-income growth at 0.5% in the first three months of 2014, well below the national rate of 0.8%. One of the biggest reasons cited for the low ranking was Maine's refusal to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
LePage, however, said that Maine's net personal earnings increased by 0.8%. The governor arrived at his number by excluding what the federal bureau calls "personal current transfer receipts": payments from the federal government for Social Security, Medicare, unemployment benefits and Medicaid expansion. Maine is one of only four states (IN, TN and WY are the others) where transfer receipts declined this year. LePage said he chose not to follow the federal bureau's definition because it conceals welfare benefits.
The plan directs the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices to investigate campaign claims following a complaint by a candidate. The panel would have to make a public statement if the claim is deemed false.
Backers of the effort, which LePage's office says is the governor's "attempt to bring civility to the process," told lawmakers that having such a check in place will encourage candidates to make fewer false claims about their opponents.
"Should there be no restraint, no limit or no consequence for lying?" said one legislator. But the ACLU of Maine said the proposal violates the constitution, arguing that courts have found that even false statements deserve First Amendment protection.
LePage's office said it believes that the lack of penalties if a claim is deemed false would allow the proposal to stand up constitutionally.
Their views differ from that of Gov. Paul LePage, whose strong support for charter schools, virtual or otherwise, has been well-established since he took office in 2011. The Republican governor has pushed for the expansion of school choice and sees charter schools--independently run schools that operate on public dollars but often offer alternative curricula--as an important piece of that.
The State Senate proposed a one-year moratorium on for-profit virtual charter schools. The bill, which could keep Maine Connections Academy from opening this fall, awaits further votes in the Legislature. LePage has said that he would veto any moratorium
Michaud's campaign spokeswoman said the candidate is less likely to warm up to virtual charter schools, even after a one-year moratorium: "A number of studies have found that virtual charter schools don't serve students well. Students in virtual charter schools failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress at rates that are worse than traditional public schools."
Michaud said he supports technological advances in the classroom but not the virtual charter schools approach. "Maine has an opportunity to create innovative virtual learning tools, but it needs to be done right," he said. "What we need is a student-focused, Maine-based solution that brings innovation to the classroom."
The state's electricity costs are holding back job creation and the economy, LePage says. But supporters of current policy say that the advantages-- in both capital investment and jobs--of supporting a burgeoning renewable-power industry far outstrip any disadvantages of slightly higher-priced power.
The LePage administration has a multi-pronged strategy for lowering energy rates, including finding ways to increase the inflow of natural gas. Helping to build a natural gas pipeline to increase supplies to New England while developing long-term contracts for lower-priced Canadian power are key objectives, a spokesperson said.
According to LePage, the state could be liable for up to $13 million in federal fines for not meeting national TANF guidelines from 2007 to 2010, though that amount can be reduced if Maine takes quick action. At issue is that the state did not meet federal requirements for the number of TANF recipients who were working while receiving benefits. "We must fix this Maine law in order to comply with federal law," said LePage. "Maine is overly generous in allowing a wide variety of exemptions from the work requirement, which are not recommended by the federal government, making it impossible to meet federal standards."
All of those governors won a first term in the national Republican sweep of 2010, and most have had strong Republican representation in their legislatures to support them. But LePage was tasked with facing a Democrat-controlled legislature, and in July he vetoed a bill to incrementally raise the state's minimum wage.
For his likely Democratic challenger, Rep. Mike Michaud, increasing the minimum wage is an issue the onetime paper mill worker from northern Maine discusses often, said a campaign adviser. "He is closely aligned with working- and middle-class families," Farmer said. "He's not a millionaire.
Governors in eight stats--including every New England state except Maine--have asked the US EPA to force states in the Midwest and South to reduce ozone-forming power plant emissions.
The LePage administration said Maine joined two other Ozone Protection Zone states--PA & NY--in abstaining from the petition, in part because Maine's air is already clean enough to meet federal standards: "Maine is in attainment with federal air standards and the largest source of impacts to Maine's air is actually from mobile sources, not stationary ones. DEP has strong reasons to believe that future state and federal pollution requirements will mean further overall emission reductions from mobile and stationary sources, and that the state will continue to meet the federal air standards."
The comments were similar to points made by Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson in May at an international trade conference in South Portland. Grimsson said the polar shipping route would shorten the trip between China and Europe by 40% to 50%. Maine could be part of the route because, earlier this year, Icelandic shipping company Eimskip made Portland its only US port of call.
"I think with Eimskip coming to Maine, with all the good things happening--it used to be global warming; I think they call it climate change now--but there are a lot of opportunities that are developing," LePage said.
Mike Michaud criticized the comment, claiming LePage was ignoring the negative effects of climate change.
LePage's proposals are based on a series of "red tape workshops" that the administration is holding with chambers of commerce to identify government rules that may dampen the state's business climate. "Job creation and investment opportunities are being lost because we do not have a fair balance between our economic interests and the need to protect the environment," LePage said in a written statement accompanying the list.
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The above quotations are from 2014 Maine Gubernatorial debates and race coverage.
Click here for other excerpts from 2014 Maine Gubernatorial debates and race coverage. Click here for other excerpts by Paul LePage. Click here for other excerpts by other Governors.
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