Former Governor Paul LePage talks about his 2022 Gubernatorial Campaign

PRESQUE ISLE, Maine (WAGM) - Former Governor Paul Lepage announced a few weeks ago at a campaign event in Augusta that he is running for Maine Governor , Newssource 8′s Corey Bouchard sat down with him for an interview about his campaign.

Corey Bouchard - Newssource 8 “First question I’m going to ask you is what are some of the major points of your campaign? What are some of the stuff that you’re hitting on?”

Paul LePage - (R) 2022 Gubernatorial Candidate “Three things that are really crucial to our campaign there. There are many, many more than that. But the three crucial ones are getting Mainers back to work. I think that this current administration has not done a very good job. Government is competing with the private sector, for paying people not to work. And I think that’s just the wrong direction. Secondly, education, kids are getting massacred by this, these mandates. They’ve, they’re excessive, we need them. Absolutely. We have to be safe, we’ve got to protect that kids. But when you go overboard, you create other problems like Social Development problems, lack of education, being below proficiency, these types of things need to be addressed them and not being addressed. And the most crucial one in my mind. And the reason I’m running for governor is the way this administration handled the, the nursing homes in our elderly, too many people died and they shouldn’t have died, they should not have been exposed to what happened and and the problem was she just underfunded the and we we were telling her when we left, you need to give him more money. Because the minimum wage has gone from $8 to $12. We need to fund the nursing homes. She refused and look at the results. "

Bouchard “Okay.What makes you different from the other your opponents that are running?”

LePage " First, I’m a businessman, I put people to work my whole life. I know how to run a business. I know how to grow an economy in 2010. I took over a disaster. By 2012. We had the state humming minimum, the the unemployment rate in 2010, or 11, when I started was 8.2%. I levers 2.7%. That’s the difference between myself and the current administration. Right now it’s hovering at 5.2. It’s been there for several months not changing. There’s there’s three jobs for every person unemployment, but she’s not forcing him to go to work. Okay. My next question is How would you have handled this this pandemic differently from the current administration, she handled one size fits all, I would have gone at least 16 different ways I would have gone county by county, and I’ve locked down the counties that had hotspots. And I’ve attacked the hotspots, those counties that were not suffering from COVID, I would let him continue working. I’d have been safe. We would have we’ve used the mandates, the mandates of mask and sanitation, you know, antiseptic, hand wash, social distancing, I’m all for that. But one size does not fit all. I mean, it took piscataqua County, I think in last year, their first case was in August, and then the next one was several months later. So that’s the way I would have done it. I would have done it. county by county. No question. Cumberland County should have been shut down and just got in for a period. No problem. I would have 16 emergency crews in each county to attack the hotspots. "

Bouchard”What do you mean you would have you would have attacked the hotspots as far as like you would have done obviously a stay at home order for those specific counties”

LePage”I would have done tracing. Now, you got to do some tracing, to see where it came from, identify where it come from, identify who’s got it. nursing homes, for instance, I would have handled the nursing homes, totally different. First of all, in 2019, when I left, we had a bunch of money earmarked for nursing homes, she chose not to give it to nursing homes, but to expand Medicaid, I would have given it to nursing homes, make sure nobody could have anticipated in 2019 it was going to pandemic so but you got to be safe and make sure you protect the most vulnerable and it’s our elderly, our children and those with disabilities. Those are where I would have focused on the most unfortunate that’s not what happened.”

Bouchard “Okay is there a specific state that you would have maybe modeled your your plan after”

LePage”South Dakota. I think South Dakota, Christie known did a wonderful job. And the difference between this current administration and the way I’ve handled it is she’s under power control. And and, you know, politics of the past, and I’m about faith, freedom and trusting. We need to trust main people to do the right thing. I believe had she not made the mandates. The way she did that half of the people that are not vaccinated with at least been vaccinated we’d have much better numbers, because if you trust them to do the right thing, and instead of having a politician on TV saying, Go get vaccinated or if you’re not vaccinated, you’re gonna lose your job. You go get some doctors to get on radio and TV and say The vaccine is safe. Go see a doctor, talk it over with a doctor. That’s the way I’d handle”

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