The second TV debate between Gov. Janet Mills and former Gov. Paul LePage was focused heavily on policy. LePage is the underdog and he was the aggressor, while Mills looked to parry and avoid drawn-out exchanges with her opponent.
LePage remained full of surprises, including one on abortion and in other policy areas where he shifted or unveiled ideas that look unworkable in practice. Mills looked back on her tenure more than forward. Here are the lessons from the CBS 13/Bangor Daily News debate.
LePage was steadier than in the previous debate despite major curveballs. The Republican was more even in this debate than in the last one, marked by a labored exchange on abortion that led to him saying he would veto a 15-week ban, surprising anti-abortion allies and winning him no support from the abortion-rights side firmly behind Mills.
His opening statement began with his life story and kept the focus on costs and inflation, a topic he needled the governor on early in the debate. But it soon yielded more on a policy idea that he has only spoken about in vague terms: providing money to farmers to boost production and keep prices down.
When pressed on the utility of more money for farms during a labor shortage, he suggested that he would violate federal law by somehow putting asylum seekers to work, saying if President Joe Biden can “violate his oath of office by bringing people from the southern border into Maine, then we should be able to put them to work.”
The fact is that asylum seekers cannot get a work permit for months after they arrive in the U.S., a problem that Mills, the congressional delegation and business interests have supported fixing but has lingered because Congress has been paralyzed on immigration issues. Working without a permit could expose migrants to deportation and businesses to potential fines.
There was more on the abortion issue as well. LePage said he was “fine” with Medicaid funding for abortion, something that legislative Republicans were united against when Mills and Democrats passed it in 2019. He said he was against a law that would make “abortion for everyone paid for by the state,” something that has never been seriously considered.
The former governor also continued to push out the boundaries on where he would support offshore wind in Maine, an issue he has used to some effect against Mills. He has opposed a test wind farm that would be sited 30 miles offshore in federal waters, saying in the past it should be at least 40 miles out. On Monday, he said it should not even be in federal waters, which extend 200 miles offshore. That would make any such project untenable.
Mills was in maintenance mode, talking more about what she has done than what she will do. The governor avoided giving too many specifics about what she will do in the future, while frequently highlighting the $850 checks that passed as part of a spending package earlier this year. LePage continued to call them a gimmick as he looked to draw her into a debate.
“This governor spends money like a drunken sailor,” LePage said. “The only difference between Janet Mills and a drunken sailor is a drunken sailor spends his own money.”
“Look, tell that to the people who got that money in their pockets,” Mills retorted.
LePage outlined somewhat of a plan for costs, although it also relied on spending money. He said would set some aside to cap oil prices and suspend both the gas and diesel taxes. When the governor was asked to look forward, she was vague but said she wanted to help Mainers pay their oil bills in the short term while saying Maine “can’t be dependent on the big oil companies any longer” and must diversify energy sources.
“I want to help Maine people pay that oil bill this winter, and with the help of the new Legislature in early December, we will do so,” she said.
Contrasting with LePage remarking in his closing statement that Maine’s economy is “broken,” Mills offered a review of her tenure that referenced good reviews of her pandemic management, Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Nirav Shah and Medicaid expansion.
“In me, you will find a governor who tells you the truth, who works to fight problems, not people and who will deliver solutions, not vitriol,” she said.
