AUGUSTA, Maine — Calls for disciplinary action against Republican Sen. Mike Willette of Presque Isle continued Friday with Senate Democrats and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People calling for an ethics probe.
“This is not easy,” said Rachel Talbot Ross, president of the Portland Chapter of the NAACP, during a news conference Friday at the State House. “We are here to call on the Maine Senate leadership to further look into this matter.”
Talbot Ross called for Willette to be removed from the Legislature’s State and Local Government Committee, which he chairs, but stopped short of calling for his resignation.
Talbot Ross said she came to Augusta on Friday to meet with Senate leaders from both parties but that Senate President Mike Thibodeau, R-Winterport, refused to attend the meeting with Democrats present. A spokeswoman for Thibodeau said Friday that he believes Democrats are “politicizing the issue.”
Willette has been under fire since earlier this month when it was revealed by BDN blogger and Maine People’s Alliance blogger Mike Tipping that Willette had posted a number of anti-President Barack Obama messages on his Facebook page, some of which were critical of and insensitive to Islam.
Donna Loring, a legislative representative for the Penobscot Nation, said during the news conference that she has seen racism in Maine in many forms.
“When a Maine state senator makes comments like the ones he has, it has to be met with consequences or it no longer is simply his view,” said Loring. “It becomes condoned. Without action, this institution verifies his words.”
Senate Minority Leader Justin Alfond, D-Portland, said during the news conference that he and his caucus want the entire Senate to move forward as one in condemning bigoted remarks shared by Willette on his personal Facebook account. Alfond said those comments have cast a cloud over the Senate.
“We need to move forward in a way that we can ensure the people of Maine have trust and faith in the Senate,” said Alfond. “Whether that is the ethics committee in the Senate gathering, whether it’s the Senate making a statement on the record, whether that’s looking to censorship, all of this needs to be done together and it’s been blocked every step of the way by the Senate president.”
Talbot Ross said she met with Thibodeau one-on-one last week in Portland and that he personally condemned Willette’s remarks but would not agree to proceeding with disciplinary action.
“Unfortunately that’s not on the public record, so we do have some disagreements,” she said. “I continue to ask President Thibodeau for a meeting that would include the Democratic leadership and for us to put a number of impacted stakeholders around a table for a transparent conversation about the impact of this situation.”
In a written statement, Thibodeau said he has already had that conversation with Talbot Ross.
“We also discussed the need to avoid using these types of situations as a way to capitalize politically,” said Thibodeau. “Rachel and other members of the NAACP should know that my door is always open for constructive dialogue.”
