A Maine prosecutor has vowed to prosecute people accused of sexual assault even if there is not enough evidence to prove they committed the crime.
WGME reported District Attorney Natasha Irving said she would try to reform the legal system by prosecuting cases that previously had been deemed “too hard to prove.” She said prosecutors shouldn’t decline to take on such cases because “that response is very damaging to a survivor,” suggesting she believes every accuser is a “survivor.”
Irving serves Knox, Lincoln, Sagadahoc, and Waldo counties in Maine.
Irving also repeated the misleading statistic that just 2% to 8% of sexual assault accusations are false. The number, as I <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lies-damned-lies-and-campus-sexual-assault-ashe-schow">have written</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/even-if-false-rape-reports-are-rare-they-shouldnt-be-ignored">numerous times</a>, refers only to cases that have been proven false. The real number is unknown. Using the same logic employed by Irving, one could say just 3% to 5% of rape accusations are true, since that’s how many go to trial and result in a guilty finding.
Irving went on to explain the two criteria she will use to bring forward rape allegations. 1. Is the allegation credible? (Judging from Irving’s statements it’s hard to see her believing many allegations aren’t credible) and 2. Is the accuser (WGME predictably calls them a “victim”) willing to go forward with the case and potentially testify?
That’s it. That’s all it will take for Irving to drag someone through a lengthy court battle even if it’s obvious they will be found not guilty. As criminal defense attorney Scott Greenfield wrote on his blog <a href="https://blog.simplejustice.us/2020/02/01/prosecute-smear-acquit/">Simple Justice</a>, Irving’s approach seems to be about smearing the accused rather than obtaining justice in any particular case:
<blockquote>This isn’t to say that prosecutors should reject any case that isn’t a slam dunk, but to prosecute men based on the litany of rationalizations, as proffered by the “experts” who teach the jury what they’re to believe to be fact, when the evidence at best fails to establish proof beyond a reasonable doubt is a deliberate abuse of power. Ironically, it’s the same abuse complained of by reform prosecutors in any other prosecution not involving an accusation of sexual assault. Go figure.</blockquote>
Irving said herself that she “would rather show a victim that we will fight for them, than [rejecting a case] because it’s too hard to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Right there, Irving equates accusers to victims. This bias is prevalent in campus sexual assault policies and #MeToo victimology. Everyone who makes an allegation is immediately considered a victim or a “survivor,” no matter the evidence. It turns “innocent until proven guilty” on its head and implies that since the person is being called a victim, the accused must be guilty.
“We don’t want law enforcement or prosecutors to ever think that something is a ‘he said she said,’” Irving added.
But many if not most allegations of sexual assault are a “he said, she said” situation.
Greenfield explained what the result will be of Irving’s #MeToo style “reform”:
<blockquote>Will it work? First, it doesn’t have to in order to accomplish its goal. As the saying goes, you can beat the rap, but you can’t beat the ride. Men will be arrested and prosecuted, their faces and the accusations against them will appear in the media. They will lose their jobs, their homes, their families and be criminals. Even acquitted, the belief of guilt isn’t dissipated. After all, juries don’t return verdicts of “innocent,” but not guilty. And as the presumption of innocence is reduced to a “legal technicality” rather than a tenet of law, there is no way to overcome the taint.
But second, it may well work. For the reasons detained people plead guilty now, they will plead guilty to sex offenses rather than roll the dice at trial or spend a few years awaiting their chance for vindication.
And third, if the rationalizations, the expert witnesses, the narrative, accomplish what their pushers hope, perhaps juries will convict despite the gross inadequacy of proof. Is it “unfair” that some accusations of sexual assault and rape are hard to prove? Perhaps, but that’s always been the nature of our criminal justice system, that it’s better that ten guilty people go free than one innocent be convicted. There was no exception for sex offenses. Until now.</blockquote>

Natasha Irving

District Attorney In Maine Wants To Start Prosecuting People Based On Accusations And Nothing Else

Maine

Sexual Assault

Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon, a Democrat who is challenging Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) for her seat in 2020, reportedly violated election laws numerous times in 2015 and 2016 and is now casting blame on &#8220;incorrect guidance&#8221; for the violations.
<a href="https://freebeacon.com/politics/collins-challenger-used-pac-to-reimburse-own-contributions/">The Washington Free Beacon</a>&#8216;s Brent Scher reported that Gideon broke the law by &#8220;getting reimbursed for personal political contributions to federal campaigns through a corporate-funded Maine political action committee.&#8221;
&#8220;​Federal election law explicitly prohibits individuals from making contributions in the name of another person or entity,&#8221; the Free Beacon added, noting that Gideon&#8217;s own website even warns donors against doing what she reportedly did.
&#8220;In 2015, Gideon contributed $1,000 to Emily Cain, who was the Democratic candidate running for the seat in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District. Nearly a month later, Gideon’s state political action committee paid her $1,000, calling it a &#8216;reimbursement for federal contribution,'&#8221; the <a href="https://bangordailynews.com/2019/08/01/politics/sara-gideon-ran-afoul-of-federal-election-law-with-political-donations-in-2015-and-2016/">Bangor Daily News</a> reported. &#8220;That committee, Gideon Leadership PAC, which has largely been used to bolster Democratic legislative campaigns, reimbursed Gideon three more times through 2016 for $1,750 more in contributions to Cain and the federal campaign arm of the Maine Democratic Party.&#8221;
Cleta Mitchell, an expert campaign finance attorney, told the Free Beacon: &#8220;Contributions in the name of another is probably the number one worst campaign finance violation under federal law.&#8221;
&#8220;I&#8217;ve seen laypeople who periodically need reminders that it&#8217;s illegal to reimburse someone for a campaign contribution, but I&#8217;ve never seen anyone in the political arena, especially an officeholder, who doesn’t understand that this is a serious thing you just do not do,&#8221; Mitchell continued. &#8220;Your donors are your donors, and they better not be getting reimbursed by any third party.&#8221;
Erin Chlopak, a former head of the Federal Election Commission’s policy division, told the Bangor Daily News: &#8220;Typically, when people try to break the law, they try to be more discreet about it.&#8221;
Gideon is backed by Senate Democrats in her bid to unseat Collins.

Susan Collins’ Senate Challenger Accused Of ‘Worst Campaign Finance Violation’

2020 Election

Susan Collins

U.S. Senate

A former Maine resident who was falsely accused of rape has been awarded an additional $1.8 million in damages, the second award he has received over the ordeal in the past six months.
Vladek Filler was accused 12 years ago of repeatedly sexually assaulting his wife, Ligia, as the couple was divorcing and bitterly fighting for custody of their children. When Vladek told Ligia he would take their two sons with him and move to Georgia to be near his mother, she began making accusations against him.
The University of Michigan&#8217;s National Registry of Exonerations (NRE) <a href="https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=4694">said that</a> Ligia became angry after Vladek&#8217;s suggestion, and &#8220;ran into the street from the family home holding one of the boys, yelling that she wanted to kill her husband for molesting and abusing their children and that she feared he would kill their 12-year-old son.&#8221;
As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/36302/maine-man-receives-375000-after-false-rape-ashe-schow">previously reported</a>, Vladek was &#8220;found guilty of one count of gross sexual assault and two counts of misdemeanor assault,&#8221; even though social services determined there was no evidence of child abuse and a physician testified there were no signs of sexual abuse. His attorneys argued for a new trial, and in 2011, he was found guilty for one count of misdemeanor assault and sentenced to 21 days in jail.
He filed a complaint with the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar, alleging the prosecutor in his case had acted improperly by withholding exculpatory evidence.
Vladek was exonerated in 2015 and filed a federal lawsuit against more than a dozen defendants, including a nurse who told his wife to cry when testifying to &#8220;seem real.&#8221; In Sept. 2018, nearly three years after he filed his lawsuit, Vladek settled his lawsuit with all but one of the defendants for $375,000.
At the time, the claims against the nurse were still pending, but now a senior U.S. district judge in Maine has ordered Linda Gleason to pay Vladek $1.77 million in damages, <a href="https://bangordailynews.com/2019/03/16/news/hancock/former-maine-man-wins-1-8m-after-enduring-a-living-nightmare-in-discredited-rape-case/">according to the Bangor Daily News</a>. Gleason is the registered nurse who testified against Vladek at two trials and is a friend of his ex-wife&#8217;s.
Judge John Woodcock wrote in his ruling that Gleason is &#8220;extremely culpable&#8221; in Vladek&#8217;s wrongful conviction, having testified against him and advised his wife how to make the false allegations seem more believable.
&#8220;She has not come clean even to this day,&#8221; Woodcock wrote. &#8220;Ms. Gleason did not merely set a ball in motion and watch it roll. She continued to push it, testifying falsely as a witness, adding to her credibility by calling on her professionalism as a nurse. She must have known that he had been wrongfully convicted on two occasions and yet, she never told the truth.&#8221;
Further, according to court documents reviewed by the News, Woodcock compared Vladek&#8217;s &#8220;horrendous&#8221; experience to that of the protagonist in Franz Kafka&#8217;s &#8220;The Trial,&#8221; a book often cited when talking about the lack of due process in court cases.
&#8220;Mr. Filler endured a living nightmare,&#8221; Woodcock wrote. &#8220;Falsely accused by his then-wife and her friend of committing heinous crimes, he was wrongfully charged, tried and convicted of those charges, and it took him eight years to be fully exonerated. Mr. Filler&#8217;s experience is no one&#8217;s idea of justice in this state or country.&#8221;
The News reported that Gleason appears to be representing herself.
&#8220;The surreal nightmare my family and I were put through has been devastating,&#8221; Vladek said in response to the judgement, according to the News. &#8220;From day one, and throughout both criminal trials, the truth was available to the officials involved, but they ignored and suppressed the truth, and deliberately kept it from the eyes and ears of the jury.&#8221;

Man Falsely Accused Of Sexual Assault Awarded $1.8 Million In Damages

Hoax

Nearly 2,000 alumni and faculty members from Sen. Susan Collins&#8217; (R-ME) alma mater have <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alumni-and-faculty-call-on-st-lawrence-university-to-rescind-susan-collins-honorary-degree/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab6a&amp;linkId=58261095">demanded the university revoke</a> her most recent honorary degree to &#8220;dismantle rape culture.&#8221;
Collins received an honorary degree from St. Lawrence University in 2017 &#8211; an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters &#8211; because she did not vote to repeal Obamacare. But now that she has voted to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, she lacks &#8220;the integrity and commitment to justice that we expect from the St. Lawrence body,&#8221; according to <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfLck9mrX5dvcF2P_rFPhVEoKM5cl7ahcD7RnfRGGPi_bgU7g/viewform">a letter</a> signed by more than 1,300 alums.
So, if she does something liberal liberals like, she gets rewarded. If she does something liberals don&#8217;t like, she must be punished.
The letter claims Collins should lose the honorary degree &#8220;in support of truth and for all of the victims of sexual assault and violence, of which many of her fellow alumni and students have suffered.&#8221;
The alumni seem to struggle with the meaning of the word &#8220;truth,&#8221; since none of the sexual assault accusations against Kavanaugh were even close to being proven and, in fact, had more evidence in his favor. No named witnesses could remember any of the parties the incidents were alleged to have occurred, and none of the accusers presented any evidence other than their own claims. So, it is far from &#8220;truth&#8221; that Kavanaugh did anything untoward.
Collins addressed how she came to her decision to support Kavanaugh in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/36796/sen-susan-collins-makes-several-critical-arguments-frank-camp">a lengthy floor speech</a>. She made her decision despite death threats and the unhinged antics of the Left. She stood up for truth and basic decency.
Faculty members sent their own letter, claiming, hilariously, that revoking Collins&#8217; honorary degree was not about partisan politics, but would help &#8220;<a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdtouS_ai57qFmZRsLAKDJeeBsXRXRybQxFeHfjrf_BB1dj1Q/viewform">dismantle rape culture</a>.&#8221; Because, apparently, standing up for due process and rejecting the notion that no woman ever lies about sexual assault and that we must destroy a man&#8217;s family and reputation based on a decades-old allegation without evidence somehow promotes &#8220;attitudes and behavior that normalize and condone sexual assault.&#8221;
&#8220;While our campus has come a long way in the years since Senator Collins was a student here to educate the campus population about sexual assault and harassment, and to adjudicate it fairly when it happens, we still have much hard work before us in and outside of the classroom,&#8221; the faculty said in their letter.
Yes, we do &#8220;have much hard work before us&#8221; when faculty members claim to want to adjudicate accusations &#8220;fairly&#8221; while also demanding the university punish Collins for pointing out how unfairly the accusations against Kavanaugh were adjudicated in the court of public opinion.
Collins graduated from St. Lawrence in 1975. She received two honorary degrees thereafter, an honorary doctorate of law in 1998, and the one she received in 2017. The alumni and faculty only want to revoke the latter.

ABSURD: Alumni, Faculty Want To Revoke Susan Collins’ Honorary Degrees Because She Supported Kavanaugh

Brett Kavanaugh

Education

New York

Democrats are looking to punish Sen. Susan Collins for failing to accede to the demands of anti-Kavanaugh protesters, so they&#8217;ve proposed boycotting Collins&#8217; state until the state dumps Collins.
<a href="https://www.pressherald.com/2018/10/08/collins-vote-triggers-call-for-maine-boycott/">The Portland (Maine) Press-Herald reports</a> that angry leftists are organizing against Maine &#8212; planning to &#8220;boycott&#8221; the state by canceling scheduled travel and avoiding Maine&#8217;s signature products, from blueberries to lobster.
Leftist commentator John Fugelsang initiated the boycott, asking his followers on Twitter to &#8220;vote against&#8221; visiting Maine until something is done about the state&#8217;s non-compliant senator.
&#8220;Dear Susan Collins &#8211; I really struggled with this but my tourist $ just voted against ever visiting Maine while you remain in office,&#8221; Fugelsang tweeted. About 22,000 Twitter users answered his clarion call, some threatening to take their luxury winter vacations in Vermont or New Hampshire instead, and some pledging to forgo pricey Maine lobster dinners.
But if the response was robust, the results seem to be anemic: so far only one Fugelsang follower has reportedly canceled his winter holiday (at the $2,200-per-week Point Sebago resort), and while one Maine lobster fisherman admitted he&#8217;s lost a few customers, it doesn&#8217;t appear the industry as a whole has been markedly affected.
L.L. Bean, the national clothing retailer based in Maine, didn&#8217;t comment on the news of a planned boycott.
With the notable exception of leftists on social media, Collins told the Press-Herald that response to her vote has been &#8220;overwhelmingly positive,&#8221; not that negative reactions seem to faze her.
Almost as soon as Brett Kavanaugh was announced as the Supreme Court nominee, Collins became a target of progressive activists who mailed thousands of wire hangers to her office, and at one point <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/9/12/17850180/susan-collins-crowdpac-kavanaugh-bribe-newsmax">appeared to try to bribe the Maine Republican</a> with $2 million in campaign funds if she voted &#8220;correctly&#8221; on Kavanaugh&#8217;s appointment.

Democrats Want To Boycott Maine Over Sen. Susan Collins’ Pro-Kavanaugh Vote

Vladek Filler was accused of sexually assaulting his wife, Ligia, in April 2007, who told police he had attacked her repeatedly since 2005. At the time of this accusation, and Vladek&#8217;s arrest, he and his wife were going through a divorce and battling for custody of their children.
During the divorce, Vladek told his wife he planned to move to Georgia with their two sons to be closer to his mother. After that, <a href="https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=4694">according to</a> the University of Michigan&#8217;s National Registry of Exonerations (NRE), Ligia &#8220;ran into the street from the family home holding one of the boys, yelling that she wanted to kill her husband for molesting and abusing their children and that she feared he would kill their 12-year-old son.&#8221;
Vladek&#8217;s case wouldn&#8217;t go to trial until January 2009, and by that time, a social services investigation found no evidence of child abuse. Ligia testified at trial that Vladek would become angry and force her to have sex with him, one time allegedly because she used his bank account to pay for her haircut. She also claimed Vladek physically assaulted her.
&#8220;A physician testified that he could find no signs of sexual abuse. A police officer testified that Ligia had a bruise on her arm which she said was the result of Filler&#8217;s abuse,&#8221; it says on the NRE.
During trial, Vladek&#8217;s defense attorney argued that Ligia only made the claims when it became clear there would be a custody battle, but prosecutor Mary Kellett claimed there was no evidence of such.
Vladek was found guilty of one count of gross sexual assault and two counts of misdemeanor assault. Defense attorneys argued for a new trial, claiming Kellett made improper arguments to the jury. A new trial was granted, over prosecution objections.
Prior to the new trial in 2011, Vladek&#8217;s divorce was finalized. The divorce court found no evidence that Vladek raped his wife or abused his children, but did find that Ligia abused the children, made false accusations that they were molested, and publicly threatened to kill her husband.
Vladek was tried again in May 2011, and this time found guilty on one misdemeanor assault charge and sentenced to 21 days in jail. After this conviction was upheld, Vladek filed a complaint to the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar, alleging Kellett had broken bar rules.
It turns out Kellett had objected to the evidence that would show the custody battle. She also withheld exculpatory evidence of interactions Ligia had with police around the times she claims she was assaulted and made no mention of abuse. Kellett also withheld evidence where Ligia admitted to police that the bruise on her arm had appeared three days after Vladek allegedly abused her.
Kellett admitted in 2013 that she violated rules by making an improper argument and withholding exculpatory evidence. She was suspended for one month, but that was vacated and she was allowed her to go through six hours of legal education instead. She&#8217;s one of the few prosecutors &#8212; and the first in the state of Maine &#8212; to be sanctioned for prosecutorial misconduct.
Vladek was finally exonerated in 2015, and he filed a federal lawsuit against those that handled his case, after he discovered more evidence was withheld. A nurse who interviewed Ligia told her to cry during testimony to make her claims more believable. This part was edited out of a recording of the interview.
On Monday, September 24, 2018, Vladek <a href="https://www.wabi.tv/content/news/Lawsuit-settled-in-case-of-man-cleared-in-Hancock-County-sexual-assault-case-494157291.html">settled his lawsuit for $375,000</a>. Vladek&#8217;s attorney told WABI5 News that it was the first case where state prosecutors paid to settle a lawsuit over prosecutorial misconduct. The lawsuit involved more than a dozen defendants, and the case is still pending with one &#8212; a friend of Ligia&#8217;s.

Maine Man Receives $375,000 After False Rape Accusation

Crime

Rape

The Left has resorted to drastic and hysterical measures to try and pressure Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) to vote &#8220;no&#8221; on Brett Kavanaugh&#8217;s Supreme Court nomination.
On Sunday, the Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/f98a733e66744dcf8ec4d85ff49e68a0">reported</a> the senator&#8217;s office has received some 3,000 coat hangers from activists across the country (so, not all from her own constituents), a disgusting display suggesting that Kavanaugh&#8217;s confirmation would lead to back-alley abortions since they assume Roe v. Wade would be overturned.
Activists have also raised $886,033 at the time of this writing <a href="https://www.crowdpac.com/campaigns/387413/either-sen-collins-votes-no-on-kavanaugh-or-we-fund-her-future-opponent/updates/2774?source_code=campaign-update-link-2774&amp;ref_code=campaign-update">via crowdpac</a>, threatening to give that money to a future Democrat opponent if Collins votes to confirm Kavanaugh. The campaign says that if Collins votes &#8220;no&#8221; on Kavanaugh then no one would be charged &#8220;and no money will go to fund her future opponent.&#8221; But, if Collins votes to confirm Kavanaugh, then the money &#8220;will go to her opponent&#8217;s campaign, once that opponent has been identified.&#8221;
Collins has said she would make her decision after the hearings, and though the GOP certainly doesn&#8217;t want to lose her vote, it wouldn&#8217;t mean Kavanaugh would not be confirmed.
The GOP now has 51 votes in the senate, so losing one would result in a tie to be decided by Vice President Mike Pence. Kavanaugh still confirmed. Further, three senators facing tough re-elections who voted for Neil Gorsuch may vote to confirm Kavanaugh as well.

Liberals Raise $800,000, Send Coat Hangers To Pressure A ‘No’ Vote On Kavanaugh From Susan Collins

Democratic Party

Yesterday, I had the honor of interviewing Eric Brakey, the Republican candidate for the US Senate seat held currently by Angus King. Below is our exchange:
JF: Tell me about your background, how you became conservative. Were you always of this worldview? If not, how did you get here? Did you grow up with it, or did you adopt it later in life?
Eric: I grew up in a conservative home. My father always had Fox News on the TV and Rush Limbaugh on the radio. And during the George W. Bush years, I was the outspoken Republican kid in class in a very liberal community, parroting much of what I heard from Bill O&#8217;Reilly against all my liberal peers, including when it came to President Bush&#8217;s hawkish foreign policy. When our country invaded Iraq, I cheered with genuine belief that we were bringing freedom and democracy to an oppressed people.
It wasn&#8217;t until my college years (earning my BFA in Theatre Performance) that I began to question the establishment Republican narrative I&#8217;d believed all my life. Years of watching my friends go off to fight and risk their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan with little to show for it put some doubts in my mind.
In 2010, during the height of the Tea Party wave as I (like many others) was growing concerned about the bank bailouts and the $13 trillion national debt, my oldest brother gave me Ron Paul&#8217;s book, &#8220;The Revolution,&#8221; and it changed my whole worldview. I came to realize that the mainstream two party narrative was a lie: both parties were complicit in the erosion of our free society.
The hardest truth to accept, however, was that the wars I had believed so strongly in as a teenager were sold to me &#8212; and all the American people &#8212; based on lies and hundreds of thousands died as a result. American soldiers lost their lives, and so did many innocent civilians in these war torn regions.
After earning my degree, I moved to New York City to work as a professional theatre actor. During my two years in the city, I started showing up to debate watch parties hosted by the local grassroots Ron Paul movement. When I kept showing up, they started giving me things to do: designing flyers, tabling and identifying new supporters at Union Square. Before I knew it, I was helping to run the whole NYC grassroots operation, including organizing a huge rally with Ron Paul at Webster Hall &#8212; and that&#8217;s when someone told me to apply for a job with the Ron Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign.
I was in the middle of making my career in the theatre and I didn&#8217;t plan to give that up, but it really seemed that our country was at a crossroads and I had a chance to make a difference. So I applied, interviewed and was offered a position. I left the life I had been building behind.
While the campaign had originally planned to send me to Colorado, I personally requested to be placed in Maine where my family goes back for ten generations. I came in as one of three staffers, organizing the Maine Ron Paul grassroots. Eventually, I became the statewide director and we went on to win the Maine Republican Convention (outmaneuvering Mitt Romney convention parliamentarian, Ben Ginsberg) in what one journalist at the time called, &#8220;the most successful political coup in recent Maine history&#8221; &#8212; electing a full slate of Ron Paul national delegates and taking a majority on the Maine Republican State Committee.
That win boiled over into further controversy at the Republican National Convention when an upset Mitt Romney Campaign led an effort to have our delegates disqualified. When our Governor, Paul LePage, threatened to boycott the convention in response, the RNC tried to split the baby, disqualifying half (including myself) and replacing us all with hand-picked Mitt Romney supporters. Not only did our Governor boycott the Convention, this decision lead to a mass walkout of convention delegates from across the country, chanting, &#8220;As Maine goes, so goes the nation.&#8221;
After seeing what we were able to accomplish as a bunch of young, well-organized liberty activists, I knew the fight to restore our freedoms wasn&#8217;t over and I felt called to keep working to advance the cause.
Working with my colleague, David Boyer (who is currently the state director the Marijuana Policy Project and political director for this US Senate campaign), we started raising money to help local liberty Republicans run for state and local office.
Two years later, I decided to run myself against a Democrat incumbent who had held elected office for 36 consecutive years for the Maine State Senate in a Democrat-leaning district. The establishment discounted my chances, but knocking on 8,000 doors and breaking state fundraising records, I won in an 18 point landslide.
Upon election, with Republican control of the Senate and Democrat control of the House, I ushered through the passage of Constitutional Carry, Welfare Reform and Right to Try. Winning re-election by a larger margin the second time, I came back to the Senate and lead a bipartisan effort to reform Maine&#8217;s medical cannabis program, making our laws some of the most open and flexible for patients and legal businesses.
Now, I am running for the US Senate to fight for Maine and fight for liberty, just as I have done in Augusta, but in Washington DC.
JF: Wow, what an inspiring life story! What made you decide to run for national office, as opposed to staying in the State Senate?
Eric: Washington DC was recently identified by the US Census as the richest region in America with the five richest counties in America all being suburbs directly surrounding the Capital. Yet Washington DC produces very little of tangible value, so how did they become so rich? We all know the answer to that &#8212; by stealing from the rest of us who work real jobs in the real economy. While we work hard in Maine, the political class and the special interests grow wealthy on the back of our efforts. They steal from our paychecks with taxes, from our futures with debt, and from the value of our retirements when they print new money from thin air.
And sadly, this isn&#8217;t the most precious thing they steal from us. Ronald Reagan warned us a generation ago that &#8220;Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not passed on through the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected and passed down to the next generation for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling out children and our children&#8217;s children about that time in America when men and women were free.&#8221;
Our constitutional liberties are being eroded as time goes on. Pick any amendment in the bill of rights (except the 3rd Amendment) and we can speak at length about how it has been eroded. Free speech is under assault across our country, our right to keep and bear arms is regularly being restricted, a surveillance state is growing up around us and a system of mass incarceration jails people for innumerable victimless crimes.
If we are to restore our freedoms in America, we must have leaders in Washington willing to fight for us and our Constitution.
JF: Who are your opponents and how are you doing against them?
Eric: I have two opponents in this three-way race.
My biggest opponent is the incumbent, Senator Angus King, an independent in name only who caucuses and votes with Chuck Schumer and has a more partisan Democrat voting record than many of the actual registered Democrats. Politically, he functions as an establishment, corporate welfare Democrat.
My other opponent is Zak Ringlestein, the Democratic nominee, who is a democratic socialist activist.
When you challenge any incumbent, it is going to be an uphill battle. Angus King has universal name recognition across Maine and access to millions in special interest dollars. But we have the message that resonates with Maine people who are sick and tired of getting kicked around by Washington DC.
JF: But what about you specifically makes you the ideal candidate to defeat this person?
Eric: As a libertarian Republican, I can bring together a coalition of voters that other Republicans have not been able to.
In the 2016 election, the votes for Donald Trump and Gary Johnson equaled a majority of the electorate.
At the same time, Maine people came out a passed a referendum to legalize cannabis for adults, while rejecting a gun control referendum that passed in every other state where it was on the ballot.
Maine people are libertarian at heart. We want outsiders in Washington DC to leave us alone and let us make our own choices in life. And that&#8217;s my message as Maine&#8217;s next US Senator.
JF: How is Maine in terms of the electorate ideologically? It seems that you have a relatively conservative governor, but consistently elect liberal Republicans and leftists to the Senate, and votes Democrat often for President. The mix seems interesting to say the least.
Eric: As I said above, Maine people are libertarian at heart. We want outsiders in Washington DC to leave us alone and let us make our own choices in life.
We also, largely, view ourselves as independent. Maine people don&#8217;t care about the party label to the same degree people do in other states.
For a time, Angus King has played on this, building his whole brand around being an &#8220;Independent.&#8221; He banks on the letter &#8220;I&#8221; next to his name on the ballot, giving him cover while his actions make him indistinguishable from a partisan Democrat.
The irony, of course, is this turns the independent spirit of Maine on its head. Maine people care much less about the letter next to your name and more about what you do. And that&#8217;s why so many Maine people who have voted for Angus King in the past are seeing through it. They are seeing how he behaves in Washington and swearing him off for good.
JF: Do you think you can flip this seat just in terms of those demographics alone?
Eric: Our message is the right message for Maine. Washington DC wants us fighting each other as Republicans versus Democrats so that we don&#8217;t join together against our true oppressors in the Capital. Our message transcends party politics: Maine people versus Washington DC. That&#8217;s why we are going to win. We are going to bring Maine people together to oppose our common foe.
JF: Have you received any endorsements yet? If yes, how has it impacted the race? Do you take this as a sign of hope?
Eric: I am proud to have received the endorsements of Governor Paul LePage, Senator Rand Paul, former Congressman Ron Paul, as well as many local legislators. Endorsements help, but at the end of the day, we are going to win by taking this message across the state to the Maine people.
JF: What do you think of Trump so far? What about the GOP Congress?
Eric: President Trump has surprised me in many ways. I was not a supporter of his during the Primary (my choice was Rand Paul), but I gave him a chance in the General. Since he has taken office, he has greatly surpassed my expectations, especially on foreign policy and the pursuit of diplomacy with the nations of North Korea and Russia. We will only ever achieve peace through dialogue. This past half century of diplomatic isolationism has not worked and I am glad to see President Trump taking a different strategy.
The GOP Congress, however, has been disappointing. They ran on fiscal conservatism and then end up spending as much money as the Democrats. They ran on the Constitution and then end up shredding the parts of it they don&#8217;t like. The problem is too few leaders who truly understand and value liberty. I look to a few rare individuals, like Senator Rand Paul and Senator Mike Lee, as examples of the best in Congress. I look forward to working alongside them to restore our freedoms.
JF: I agree entirely with that assessment actually. I originally was a Ted Cruz supporter but voted for Trump and have been really impressed so far. He&#8217;s delivering on whatever he can do unilaterally. Congress though, not so much, and they are holding Trump back on many of his promises. And we do have too few leaders in either chamber who are reliable votes for liberty.
What do you think would be your main focus, or focuses, when you get to Washington?
Eric: My first focus will be restoring fiscal sanity in Washington DC. We are $21 trillion in debt with $113 trillion in unfunded liabilities. That&#8217;s a bill of $1 million for every American taxpayer!
The current fiscal situation is dangerously unsustainable and represents and existential threat to our country. It appears likely that if our nation is ever to fall, it will not be from the enemy at our gates, but the debts on our balance sheets.
To contain this, we must cut spending. There are entire departments of the federal government that are both unconstitutional and wasteful, like the Federal Department of Education. The DOE has spends hundreds of billions in taxpayer money while providing only mandates and bureaucracy. Since its creation in the 1970s, the quality of education in America has only declined. It should be abolished.
My second focus will be defending the constitutional rights of all American people from further encroachment from Washington DC, doing everything I can to advocate for the restoration of our 10th Amendment, which would return a great deal of policy making authority to the states.
Our country was founded on the idea that the states were to be the laboratories of innovation and that government closest to home was most accountable to the people.
We have lost that as both Republicans and Democrats scramble for power in Washington DC to impose one-size-fits-all policies on all 352.7 million American. This isn&#8217;t working. It&#8217;s fracturing our nation and creating an unaccountable bureaucracy far-removed from the people with tremendous power over our lives.
JF: Why should Maine vote for you?
Eric: Both my opponents want a seat of power in Washington DC to tell Maine people how to live. I am the only candidate in this race running to get Washington DC to leave us alone.
JF: Awesome. How can people seeing this contribute or help out your campaign?
Eric: Anyone who wants to support our campaign to Fight for Maine and restore Liberty for the Little Guy can like us on Facebook (Eric Brakey for US Senate), follow us on Twitter and Instagram (SenatorBrakey) and donate to support our message at www.ericbrakey.com.
We are a grassroots driven campaign, so we also welcome anyone who would like to volunteer to spread the message by knocking on doors and making phone calls.
JF: Thank you so much for your time and good luck!

EXCLUSIVE: Interview with Maine State Senator and Candidate for US Senate, Eric Brakey

Conservatism

Republican Party

Maine Republican Gov. Paul LePage defied LGBT activists by vetoing a bill that would have banned therapists from counseling people with unwanted same-sex attraction, arguing it was &#8220;too broad.&#8221;
The Left defines it as &#8220;conversion therapy&#8221; or &#8220;reparative therapy,&#8221; but that&#8217;s a smear. All such therapy does is provide an avenue for men and women who do not wish to have same-sex attraction to seek the treatment they desire. In an era where words like &#8220;choice&#8221; are thrown around in support of any cause, bans on such therapies are clearly an affront to people&#8217;s free choice.
Bill <a href="http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/bills_128th/billtexts/HP064002.asp">LD 912</a> would have forbid people from &#8220;advertis[ing], offer[ing] or administer[ing] conversion therapy to individuals under 18 years of age.&#8221; Such therapy was defined as a &#8220;practice or treatment that seeks to change an individual&#8217;s sexual orientation or gender identity.&#8221;
The bill gave exceptions for clergy while threatening to suspend or revoke the licenses of medical professionals, school guidance counselors, or school psychologists.
Gov. LePage vetoed the bill as &#8220;bad public policy.&#8221;
&#8220;This is so broad that licensed professionals would be prohibited from counseling an individual even at the individual&#8217;s own request,&#8221; LePage said of the bill in his <a href="https://www.maine.gov/governor/lepage/official-documents/128th-legislature-bills.html">veto message</a>.
LePage also said that such a bill would curtail religious liberty and that state law already prohibits any medical practice that would subject people to physical or mental abuse. He also called the bill&#8217;s proponents hypocritical for previously opposing an anti-genital mutilation bill.
&#8220;Legislators who could not stand up and outlaw the permanent mutilation of young girls&#8217; sexual organs by laypersons in unsanitary conditions with razor blades now are concerned with outlawing conversations, of which there is also &#8216;no evidence&#8217; that it is happening in Maine,&#8221; LePage summarized. &#8220;That is a disgusting double-standard.&#8221;
Matt Moonen of the LGBT lobbying group Equality Maine denounced LePage for choosing &#8220;petty politics over protecting kids.&#8221; Human Rights Campaign national field director Marty Rouse decried the decision as &#8220;inexcusable.&#8221;
&#8220;With this inexcusable decision, Governor LePage has become the only governor in the nation to veto legislation protecting young people from this abuse, solidifying his place in history&#8217;s hall of shame,&#8221; Rouse <a href="https://www.hrc.org/blog/maine-governor-vetoes-bill-protecting-lgbtq-youth-from-conversion-therapy">complained</a>.

Maine Governor Vetoes Ban On Therapy For Unwanted Same-Sex Attraction

LGBT

On the heels of New York City offering a &#8220;third&#8221; gender option on birth certificates, Maine is now set to offer a nonbinary &#8220;X&#8221; gender option for driver&#8217;s licenses.
On Monday, the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) announced plans for the nonbinary gender option on driver&#8217;s licenses and identification cards for residents who do not &#8220;identify&#8221; as male or female.
&#8220;Residents who wish to apply for a nonbinary gender option can fill out a one-page form, and Maine&#8217;s BMV will provide a sticker to put on the license that reads &#8216;Gender has been changed to X &#8213; Non-binary,'&#8221; <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/maine-nonbinary-drivers-licenses_us_5b1ebfb4e4b0adfb826c78b1?ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067">reports</a> The Huffington Post.
There will be no fee for the nonbinary stickers, which will be phased out by July 2019.
Before New York City took the plunge into anti-science gender theory, Oregon, California and Washington state all offered the third &#8220;X&#8221; gender options for birth certificates. And Washington, D.C. preceded Maine in offering the gender change on driver&#8217;s licenses.

Maine Joins In On Gender Delusion With New Measure

Gender

Transgender

Displaying the very essence of sacrilegious behavior, a Presbyterian minister asserts that Planned Parenthood, which murders hundreds of thousands of babies every year, should be blessed by God.
As <a href="http://www.lifenews.com/2018/05/11/presbyterian-minister-blesses-planned-parenthood-abortion-clinic-in-gods-name-volunteers-as-its-chaplain/">Life News reports</a>, The Rev. Marvin Ellison, a volunteer chaplain at the Planned Parenthood in Portland, Maine, joined other chaplains to bless the Maine facility at a service they hosted. Ellison doubled down in a <a href="https://www.pressherald.com/2018/05/11/maine-voices-for-me-as-a-chaplain-planned-parenthoods-name-is-blessed/">column for the Press Herald</a>. In his column, he stated, &#8220;There are some who assume that if you&#8217;re a person of faith, you must stand in opposition to all that Planned Parenthood represents, but that&#8217;s far from true.&#8221;
Of course, Ellison didn&#8217;t say what that faith is in. He attempted to justify his position by relying on people&#8217;s feelings instead of religious doctrine: &#8220;Throughout the U.S., <a href="http://religiousinstitute.org/time-to-embrace/executive-summary/#_ednref1">according to</a> the Public Religion Research Institute, the majority of religiously affiliated people support sexual and reproductive health, rights and justice.&#8221;
Then, of course, the deliberate avoidance of regarding babies in the womb as part of the human race: &#8220;Promoting health care for all, including reproductive and sexual health care, is an important religious value, and that commitment is nothing new.&#8221;
That &#8220;all&#8221; is rather convenient.
Then the attack on the pro-life movement, including their display of &#8220;scary images&#8221; (read: dismembered babies due to abortion):
<blockquote>
After all, a vocal minority, in the name of religion, has long objected to sexuality education and family planning and resorted to punitive, shaming language and scary images to try to prevent both women and men, cisgender and transgender alike, from seeking the health care they need.
</blockquote>
Ellison proudly cited the fact the he and the other chaplains actually blessed the Portland abortion clinic: &#8221;Recently our chaplains hosted a blessing of the Planned Parenthood health center here in Portland&#8221; adding, &#8220;We believe in its mission and applaud its life-affirming values. As we said during the blessing, &#8216;We thank God for Planned Parenthood and for the amazing work you do, day in and day out, with passion, courage, wisdom and grace.&#8217;&#8221;
Their blessing concluded, &#8220;Hear this loud and clear: In the name of all that is holy and good, Planned Parenthood your name is blessed. Each staff member is a blessing to this community and to those for whom you provide health care, education and advocacy. You are the blessing, and we thank God for you.&#8221;
In the name of all that is holy and good.
No.

UNHOLY: Presbyterian Minister Asks God To Bless Planned Parenthood

Abortion

Planned Parenthood

The state of Maine is bucking the nationwide push to raise the minimum wage as it considers <a href="http://www.publicnewsservice.org/2018-01-31/livable-wages-working-families/bill-would-roll-back-minimum-wage/a61242-1">lowering the recent increase</a> the state implemented. On January 1 the minimum wage was raised to $10 an hour, but a bill proposed by Gov. Paul LePage, <a href="http://legislature.maine.gov/legis/bills/bills_128th/billtexts/HP121001.asp">LD 1757</a>, would lower it by 50 cents in June.
LePage has stated that increasing the wage quickly hurts small businesses, catalyzing reduced hours and job losses. The state&#8217;s minimum wage was increased from $7.50 to $9 an hour in 2017.
The bill <a href="http://legislature.maine.gov/legis/bills/bills_128th/billtexts/HP121001.asp">states</a> it affects the minimum wage by &#8220;reducing the minimum wage from $10 per hour to $9.50 per hour beginning June 1, 2018; reducing the amount by which the minimum hourly wage rates are scheduled to increase annually on January 1st from 2019 to 2021 from $1 per year to 50 cents per year, and decreasing from $12 to $11 the minimum hourly wage rate required to be paid in 2021; eliminating the cost-of-living adjustment to the minimum wage; and establishing a training minimum wage for employees 18 years of age or older and under 20 years of age for the first 90 days of employment and a youth minimum wage for employees under 18 years of age.&#8221;
LePage has been an outspoken opponent of a hike in the minimum wage for years; in 2016, he<a href="https://www.pressherald.com/2016/10/14/lepage-affirms-his-statement-that-two-minimum-wage-hike-advocates-should-be-imprisoned/"> said</a> two advocates of a state ballot question to increase the minimum wage should have been jailed because they were guilty of the &#8220;attempted murder&#8221; of senior citizens, as the increase in the price of goods would push the prices of consumer goods and services beyond the reach of retirees on fixed incomes.

Maine, Bucking National Trend, Considers Lowering Minimum Wage

Minimum Wage

A 27-year-old man in Maine found an unusual way to avoid taking a breathalyzer test when a police officer suspected he was under the influence &#8212; <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/suspected-drunk-driver-punches-avoid-sobriety-test-article-1.3766049">punching himself in the face</a>.
On January 13, <a href="http://www.penbaypilot.com/article/belfast-man-punches-self-face-charged-oui-criminal-mischief/96892">according</a> to the Pen Bay Pilot, Brian Fogg dropped off a female friend at a residence, then tried to leave in his vehicle, but wound up driving into a ditch. Police Sgt. Matthew Cook said the driveway was long and winding and slick, as it was raining. Fogg then returned to the residence, whereupon he and the owner confronted each other, prompting Fogg to strike and dent the homeowner&#8217;s vehicle.
Officer Lew Dyer IV, who responded to the situation after an alert from the homeowner, suspected Fogg was under the influence and asked him to take a breathalyzer test. Fogg then punched himself in the face three times, possibly to bring blood into his mouth. Cook told the PenBay Pilot blood on the mouth can lead to unreliable breathalyzer results.
Fogg also refused a blood alcohol test.<a href="http://wgme.com/news/local/belfast-man-allegedly-punches-himself-in-the-face-to-avoid-breathalyzer"> WGME</a> reported that police eschewed giving Fogg any test and instead treated his injuries. Fogg was charged with operating under the influence, falsifying physical evidence and criminal mischief. He has been released on bail.

This Man Came Up With A Brilliant Way To Avoid A Breathalyzer. There Was Only One Problem.

Alcohol

Police

On Tuesday evening, the circus came to a small town in Maine, this time with a clown holding a machete.
At roughly 6 p.m. Tuesday, police received a 911 call, according to <a href="http://www.wcsh6.com/mb/news/local/creepy-clown-with-a-machete-arrested-in-hollis/459548139">WCSH6</a>. State Trooper Adam Schmidt stated that residents in Hollis witnessed a man walking along Plains Road wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and a clown mask, and holding a machete. After he was spotted, he ran into the woods.
After about an hour, 31-year-old Corey Berry of Hollis, who had duct-taped the machete to his amputated arm, came out of the woods in Waterboro. He was taken into custody and charged with criminal threatening, then transported to York County Jail, where he posted $200 bail.
Schmidt said Berry was quite drunk but cooperative; Berry said he was attempting to play a prank and copy previous creepy clown sightings.
The &#8220;creepy clown&#8221; phenomenon began in the summer and fall of 2016, and <a href="https://mic.com/articles/182335/creepy-clown-sightings-are-back-heres-why-experts-say-theyre-so-scary#.5zOTijjVl">resurfaced this summer</a>; a Montana man wearing clown makeup allegedly hurled fireworks into traffic according to <a href="http://www.dailyinterlake.com/article/20170716/ARTICLE/170719910">Daily Inter Lake</a>. A man dressed as a clown in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, allegedly attempted to cajole a 9-year-old girl into following him by offering her money, according to the <a href="http://nbc4i.com/2017/07/15/police-say-clown-tried-to-lure-9-year-old-pennsylvania-girl-with-cash/">Associated Press</a>. On July 2, two <a href="http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime/scary-clown-revisited-girls-scared-by-clown-with-knife-man/article_9490067b-2849-5c7d-94c3-1597b784f9b0.html">knife-wielding</a> men, one of whom was dressed as a clown, frightened two young girls as they played outside in Madison, Wisconsin, according to the <a href="http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime/scary-clown-revisited-girls-scared-by-clown-with-knife-man/article_9490067b-2849-5c7d-94c3-1597b784f9b0.html">Wisconsin State Journal</a>.

Maine Man Charged After Being Spotted Wearing Clown Mask And Machete Taped To His Arm

After leaving a profanity-laced voicemail for a Democratic lawmaker who unfairly called him a racist, Maine Governor Paul LePage appeared to apologize for his actions Tuesday morning during a radio interview.
At one point, he even implied that he might resign as a result of the fallout.
&#8220;I think some things I&#8217;ve been asked to do are beyond my ability. I&#8217;m not going to say that I&#8217;m not going to finish it. I&#8217;m not saying that I am going to finish it,&#8221; he <a href="http://www.pressherald.com/2016/08/30/lepage-says-he-is-considering-resignation-after-apology-to-westbrook-legislator/">stated</a>. &#8220;If I&#8217;ve lost my ability to help Maine people, maybe it&#8217;s time to move on.&#8221;
By late afternoon, LePage walked back his comments. Here&#8217;s what he tweeted out just six hours after his morning radio interview:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Regarding rumors of resignation, to paraphrase Mark Twain: &#8220;The reports of my political demise are greatly exaggerated.&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/mepolitics?src=hash">#mepolitics</a>
&#8212; Paul R. LePage (@Governor_LePage) <a href="https://twitter.com/Governor_LePage/status/770662267834736641">August 30, 2016</a></blockquote>
Harsh media scrutiny will likely ensue whether or not LePage resigns. For now at least, the governor is embroiled in controversy.
Here are seven things you need to know about Maine&#8217;s governor and why he may resign:
1. LePage first drew national attention last week after suggesting that the majority of drug dealers in his state are black. 
&#8220;Let me tell you this, explain to you, I made the comment that black people are trafficking in our state, now ever since I said that comment I&#8217;ve been collecting every single drug dealer who has been arrested in our state,&#8221; he stated at a town hall in North Berwick last Wednesday. &#8220;I don&#8217;t ask them to come to Maine and sell their poison, but they come and I will tell you that 90-plus percent of those pictures in my book, and it&#8217;s a three-ringed binder, are black and Hispanic people from Waterbury, Conn., the Bronx and Brooklyn.&#8221;
LePage&#8217;s comments were met with intense backlash. Some of his critics on the left pointed out that the majority of convicted drug dealers in Maine are actually white. Others, including Democratic State Representative Drew Gattin, implied that the governor was a racist (or at the very least, promoting racially charged rhetoric).
2. LePage became livid after hearing about Gattin&#8217;s sensationalist accusations, prompting the governor to leave the state rep. the now-infamous profanity-laced voicemail.
3. LePage is one of the Left&#8217;s favorite targets. 
The governor&#8217;s unapologetic bombast has angered many leftists. As a result, they&#8217;ve been attempting to smear his name for years. In 2013, &#8220;Two lawmakers, who remained anonymous, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/21/us/for-maine-governor-issue-is-what-they-said-he-said.html">said they had heard</a> Mr. LePage say at a fund-raiser that President Obama &#8216;hates white people,&#8217;&#8221; according to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/30/us/controversial-gov-paul-lepage-maine-list.html">The New York Times</a>.
Since then a number of &#8220;anonymous&#8221; rumors about LePage&#8217;s alleged &#8220;racism&#8221; have floated around the political stratosphere.
4. LePage opposes leftist racial grievance groups. The left hates him for that. 
In 2011, LePage said &#8220;kiss my butt&#8221; to NAACP leaders after they blasted him for refusing to attend their events. Despite increasingly vocal attacks by the NAACP and other like-minded groups, LePage refused to back down.
&#8220;Look at my family picture,&#8221; LePage <a href="http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/maines-new-governor-dismisses-n-a-a-c-p-s-concerns/">said</a> at the time, pointing to his adopted son. &#8220;My son happens to be black, so they can do whatever they&#8217;d like about it.&#8221;
He continued:
<blockquote>
The fact of the matter is there&#8217;s only so many hours in a day, so many hours in a week, and so much that you can do.
Tell them to kiss my butt&#8230;If they want to play the race card, come to dinner. My son will talk to them.
</blockquote>
5. LePage&#8217;s un-politically correct rhetoric has landed him in hot water before. 
The governor is similar to Donald Trump insofar as he improvises and routinely speaks off the cuff. 
In January, LePage apologized for this &#8220;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/30/us/controversial-gov-paul-lepage-maine-list.html">slip-up</a>:&#8221;
<blockquote>
[Out of state drug dealers come into Maine to] impregnate a young white girl.
</blockquote>
When asked to clarify his comments, LePage said that he was talking about &#8220;guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty &#8212; these types of guys.&#8221;
6. LePage supports Trump and generally aligns with the GOP candidate on Muslim refugees. 
 &#8220;Mr. LePage <a href="http://www.wmtw.com/politics/gov-lepage-asserts-asylum-seekers-are-bringing-ziki-fly-to-maine/38041664">said</a> asylum-seekers brought disease and the &#8216;ziki-fly,&#8217;&#8221; <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/30/us/controversial-gov-paul-lepage-maine-list.html">reports</a> The New York Times. &#8220;When <a href="http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/maine-governor-lepage-doubles-down-on-comments-connecting-asylum-seekers-and-diseases/238377835">asked to apologize</a> at an event in June, Mr. LePage did not, and said conditions like hepatitis C and H.I.V. were on the rise in Maine.&#8221;
7. Democratic opponents tried to impeach LePage in January. They failed. 
Maine&#8217;s House Democrats sponsored legislation a few months ago to impeach LePage, citing the governor&#8217;s alleged bullying and &#8220;<a href="http://bangordailynews.com/2016/01/17/the-point/lepage-impeachment-failed-so-whats-next-for-maine/">misuse</a>&#8221; of state assets.
According to BDN Maine, the resolution was &#8220;seen by many as having no teeth or sustained meaning.&#8221; After an hours-long marathon of debates, a Democratic-sponsored resolution to impeach the governor failed.

7 Things You Need To Know About Maine Governor LePage And Why He Might Resign

Paul le Page

A Maine restaurant owner has told AR-15 owners that they are no longer welcoming at her business.
Anne Verrill, who owns the Foreside Tavern in Falmouth, ME and the restaurant Grace in Portland, ME, posted a picture of an AR-15 on Facebook and began ranting about the firearm.
&#8220;If you own this gun, or you condone the ownership of this gun for private use, you may no longer enter either of my restaurants, because the only thing I want to teach my children is love,&#8221; Verrill <a href="http://www.pressherald.com/2016/06/15/maine-restaurant-owner-to-assault-rifle-supporters-take-your-business-elsewhere/">wrote</a>.
Verrill continued, &#8220;You don&#8217;t privately own this weapon to protect your family, or to hunt. I understand that I may be offending members of my community, but this is a human issue, not a gun owners issue, or a Second Amendment issue, it is about humans. I cannot, in good conscience, accept anyone inside of my restaurants who believes that this is OK.&#8221;
Verrill&#8217;s post was later <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jun/16/anne-verrill-maine-restaurateur-bans-owners-suppor/">deleted</a> and she wrote a follow-up to try and clarify her position.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t want to take away guns of responsible gun owners,&#8221; Verill wrote. &#8220;I don&#8217;t care if you have 12 hunting rifles if you are a responsible hunter. I want people to not have the power to own weapons of war&#8230;if you do not understand why I do not want a weapon designed to kill at that kind of rate of speed in my restaurants then there is nothing I can do about that. But I am not going to hide behind not politicizing myself for fear of my economic security. If evil and hate want to boycott my restaurants then so be it, because I believe good will be on my side on this.&#8221;
What prompted Verrill to post her rant on the AR-15 was her refusal to let her daughter participate in the Portland Pride Parade out of fear.
&#8220;I&#8217;m scared for my children to go on field trips in public places,&#8221; Verrill told the Portland Press-Herald. &#8220;At some point you have to take a stand. At some point you&#8217;re accountable. It has to be about more than just posting a Facebook meme with a rainbow flag.&#8221;
Verrill has received fierce backlash over her comments, with some people on Facebook saying things like:
<blockquote>
&#8220;What a stupid thing to do,&#8221; one commented. &#8220;Go ahead. Alienate half your customer base.&#8221;
&#8220;Your wish is granted,&#8221; wrote another. &#8220;We&#8217;ll never visit your establishment and we&#8217;ll make sure to spread the word to the 200 million some gun owners who you have insulted.&#8221;
</blockquote>
As well as:
<blockquote>
One commenter wrote, &#8220;Your (sic) a special kind of stupid.&#8221;
Another wrote, &#8220;It&#8217;s far too late to hide your moronic post from earlier, your stupidity has since gone viral and your rating on Facebook has plummeted. You should have stuck to not being political and just served your food. You brought this on yourself by being uneducated in your opinions.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Verrill may want to do some research on the AR-15 before alienating potential customers. The <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/6749/debunking-top-5-myths-about-ar-15-aaron-bandler">AR-15</a> is not a weapon of war, but it is a convenient and useful weapon for self-defense, and it has everything to do with the <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/6653/you-wont-believe-what-boston-globe-doing-push-gun-aaron-bandler">Second Amendment</a>. But most importantly: the terrorist who shot the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, FL <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/6564/7-things-you-need-know-assault-rifles-aaron-bandler">did not use an AR-15</a>.
If Verrill is afraid for her children to go out in public spaces, wouldn&#8217;t she feel safer if they were accompanied by a good guy with a gun?

Maine Restaurant Owner Tells AR-15 Owners: Go Somewhere Else

Guns

In a blow to leftists everywhere, Maine governor Paul le Page, the outspoken conservative who grew up the eldest of 18 children in an abusive environment, triggering him to run away at age 11 and spend two years on the streets before going on to run a successful business, has <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/how-1-state-is-solving-the-food-stamp-issue/article/2577994">successfully reformed</a> welfare in his state.
Le Page has been determined to reform welfare for years, making it a chief goal he articulated when he successfully ran for governor in 2010 and his reelection in 2014. In the fall of 2014, he delivered, changing the state&#8217;s welfare rules; in order to receive food-stamp benefits, able-bodied adults without children would have to hold a part-time job, join a job-training program or volunteer.
Bingo: in the last year, a shocking plunge occurred in the number of healthy adults without dependents receiving food stamps, from 13,589 to 1,206.
Mary Mayhew, the commissioner of Maine&#8217;s Department of Health and Human Services, stated that the drop could be attributed to beneficiaries obtaining jobs or voluntarily refusing to meet the new requirements for food stamps,.
President Obama&#8217;s 2009 stimulus bill eased the work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP; which now boasts 45 million beneficiaries.
The next step in the Maine government&#8217;s attempts to reform welfare will include an asset test to determine if recipients truly deserve the benefits, according to Mayhew, thus checking to see if recipients owned luxury items that could be sold instead of relying on welfare. Other prospective changes could include barring the use of food stamps for buying candy or sugary soft drinks, and adding photo IDs on food stamp card to prevent the cards from being utilized as currency in drug trafficking.
Matthew Gagnon, head of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, a conservative think tank, said, &#8220;Now that they&#8217;re going to those simple reforms that were done 20 years ago, it&#8217;s really important to note how effective they&#8217;ve been, and how little we had to innovate in order to have an effect on the welfare culture here.&#8221;
Le Page&#8217;s outspokenness preceded Donald Trump&#8217;s by years; in 2010, running for governor, he<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KYwIDGG9zU"> asserted</a>, &#8220;We came from behind because we have a message. We have a message that says: One, we&#8217;ve had enough of the federal government. We&#8217;ve had enough. Two, we&#8217;ve had enough of the state government. And No. 3, government should be working for the people, not the people working for the government. And as your governor, you&#8217;re gonna be seeing a lot of me on the front page saying &#8216;Gov. LePage tells Obama to go to hell.&#8217;&#8221;
The feisty Le Page has been fiercely fighting Democrats in the state legislators, who have <a href="http://www.wmtw.com/news/lepage-welfare-changes-fail-to-pass-state-house-of-representatives/33740660">rejected bills</a> reforming welfare, according to Maine.gov, including:
LD 1375: would have required an up-front work search for able-bodied Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) applicants; would eliminate loopholes in the work requirement; ban out-of-state use of Maine TANF benefits; and prohibit the expenditure of cash welfare on alcohol, tobacco, gambling, bail, and tattoos;
LD 1407: would have given DHHS the authority to drug-test TANF applicants;
LD 1035: would have imposed a 9-month cap on General Assistance welfare
LD 1036: would have required the use of other benefits before GA
LD 1037: would have established a 180-day residency requirement for welfare benefits
LD 368: would have imposed a 5-year limit on GA to align with TANF.

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