Here’s the reason LePage didn’t vote in yesterday’s primary election

Gov. Paul LePage. BDN file photo by Troy Bennett.

Gov. Paul LePage. BDN file photo by Troy Bennett.

Gov. Paul LePage didn’t vote Tuesday. That fact was uncovered by Maine Democratic Party staffers, who keenly observed that because the governor was in Iceland on Election Day, he must have requested an absentee ballot if he planned to vote.

State records show the governor didn’t request a ballot. That means he didn’t vote.

Democrats are casting LePage’s no-show at the ballot box as an abdication of civic duty.

“We know Paul LePage has been an absentee governor, so this should come as no surprise,” said Ben Grant, chairman of the Maine Democratic Party, in a press release. “The people of Maine deserve a leader that is engaged and involved and they rarely get that with Paul LePage.”

But the thing is, there wasn’t much of anything for LePage to vote for. That’s why he didn’t cast a ballot, according to his campaign’s political adviser, Brent Littlefield.

There were no contested primaries in LePage’s Augusta district. The only issue on the ballot in Augusta was whether to approve up to $8 million in municipal borrowing to fix up a local library. Littlefield said that while the governor lives in The Blaine House, he’s not an Augusta property tax payer because he doesn’t “own” the governor’s mansion.

“It wouldn’t be appropriate for the governor to decide what local property tax payers choose to pay for,” Littlefield said.

It’s up to you to decide if that’s a good enough reason for the governor not to fill out a ballot. But it certainly seems to jibe with his known philosophy toward taxpayer money.

Mario Moretto

About Mario Moretto

Mario Moretto has been a Maine journalist, in print and online publications, since 2009. He joined the Bangor Daily News in 2012, first as a general assignment reporter in his native Hancock County and, now, in the State House. Mario left the BDN in 2015.