Hundreds rally in effort to convince LePage to resign

Source: Bangor Daily News

AUGUSTA, Maine — Several hundred people gathered Tuesday in a park across from the State House as part of an effort to send a message to Gov. Paul LePage: Stop bullying, support drug addiction treatment programs and if you can’t, step aside.

The rally was organized in response to a string of public statements by LePage that have attracted negative national attention. Betsy Sweet of Hallowell, who is a bullying prevention counselor and lobbyist, began organizing the event on Sunday.

“With all the kids I know who have been bullied, they say the hardest part is not the bully and it’s not the bullying event,” said Sweet. “It’s all the people who stand by and do nothing. Ordinary citizens needed and wanted to have a voice to say, ‘You don’t represent me. This is not the kind of people we are in Maine.’”

LePage, who is no stranger to making controversial and offensive statements, is under intense criticism for a series of comments he’s made since last week, ranging from his repeated contention that the vast majority of heroin dealers in Maine are black and Hispanic people from states to the south to leaving obscene insults on a Democratic representative’s voicemail.

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Read more: http://bangordailynews.com/2016/08/30/politics/hundreds-rally-in-augusta-in-effort-to-convince-lepage-to-resign/