The Maine Legislature has never dealt with a larger mountain of vetoes than during Gov. Paul LePage’s 7.5-year tenure.
The Republican governor has vetoed more bills approved by the Legislature than the combined total by all governors since Carl Elias Milliken, who took office in 1917. The Ottoman Empire fell five years later.
With a veto pen in hand, LePage is a slugger of historic proportions. Here’s a sampling of ways you can slice that fact, comparing LePage to Milliken and on:
— LePage has issued 1.4 vetoes for every one by another governor.
— LePage has issued about 34 vetoes for every other governor; that number, 34, is still more than the vetoes issued by 15 other governors.
— LePage has issued more than 5 times the vetoes of his next-busiest vetoers, Govs. Jim Longley and John “Jock” McKernan.
— In the least busy legislative session for LePage’s veto pen — his first, when he enjoyed a new Republican majority in both chambers — he still more than doubled the next-highest number of vetoes in any one session, the 108th Legislature under Longley.
— In the busiest legislative session for LePage’s veto pen — the 127th Legislature — he issued more than three times the next-highest number of vetoes in a single session.
As LePage vetoed far more than any other governor, he also has a far worse record in battling the Legislature, with about half of his vetoes ultimately getting overturned.
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