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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Call for Guillotine After Impeachment Threat

(CN) - Continuing his tradition of unsettling fellow lawmakers, Maine Gov. Paul LePage rebounded from an unsuccessful impeachment effort by voicing his wish to "bring the guillotine back."

LePage, a Republican, waxed nostalgic for the preferred execution method of the French Revolution in an interview Tuesday with local radio station WVOM, saying he would use guillotines to kill drug traffickers.

Earlier this month, LePage sparked outrage for complaining about "guys with the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty" he said came to Maine to sell heroin.

"Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave," LePage added.

Amid the public outcry over such blunt remarks, lawmakers have stepped in with their own efforts to curtail the outspoken governor.

Rep. Ben Chipman of Portland led a proposal to investigate the governor for abuse of powers, citing LePage's threat to withhold state funding from a private school if it went through with its hiring of Maine's Democratic House Speaker, Mark Eves, as its president.

When the school rescinded its offer over the summer, Eves slapped LePage with a federal complaint.

Lawmakers rounded out the measure with seven other incidents of LePage allegedly overstepping his authority, but the Legislature voted 96-52 after a Jan. 14 debate to table the impeachment order indefinitely.

A MoveOn.org petition titled "Impeach Governor Paul LePlage" is still up, and currently has 20,000 signatures.

Had the impeachment investigation successfully made it past the House and Senate, LePage would have been the first governor impeached in Maine.

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