Gov. Paul LePage has made it known he won’t settle for any half-measures on his plan to lower Maine’s income tax and overhaul its tax system. He pledged in March to “ spend the rest of my days going after” lawmakers who opposed it.
The latest salvo in the battle of the biennial budget came Monday, when Maine People Before Politics, a conservative advocacy group with ties to the governor, turned its guns on Senate Republican leaders after they reached a tentative budget deal with Democrats that did not include a number of LePage’s more contentious proposals.
A series of robocalls featuring the prerecorded voice of Lauren LePage, the group’s executive director and the governor’s daughter, said Senate Republican leaders were engaged in “backroom deals” with “liberal Democrats to oppose Gov. LePage’s income tax cuts and to provide taxpayer funded welfare for illegal aliens.”
In the robocalls, Lauren LePage urged listeners to contact legislators “to oppose taxpayer funding of illegal alien welfare and to support cutting the [state] income tax.”
Among those targeted by the conservative group’s robocalls were Senate President Mike Thibodeau, R-Winterport; Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason, R-Lisbon; and Assistant Senate Majority Leader Andre Cushing, R-Hampden — all normally close LePage allies.
Paul LePage took his budget message on the road Tuesday to Lisbon, which Mason represents, using language similar to Monday’s robocalls, complaining of “backroom deals” and that income tax reductions would not be included in the budget deal. At the town hall-style meeting, he urged the crowd to keep heat on the “bums” opposed to his agenda.
LePage on Wednesday denied having any involvement with the robocalls.
But the calls certainly rachet up the pressure on Senate Republicans to fall in line on LePage proposals that enjoy support among House Republicans, who insist state income tax cuts be included in the biennial budget. The sharp disagreement between Senate and House Republicans has raised the specter of a government shutdown, and House Republicans already are casting blame for a shutdown on their Senate counterparts and Democrats.
Robocalls are a common election season tactic used by liberal and conservative groups to get their message out. They aren’t as commonly used to influence the outcome of routine legislative work or to attack members of your own political party.
While state law sets no requirements for robocalls by nonprofit political groups outside of election season, the Federal Communications Commission has set out several requirements:
— The name of the group responsible must be provided at the beginning of the call.
— The group’s telephone number must be provided at the end.
— Unless prior permission has been granted, no robocalls may be made to emergency lines, such as fire or police departments, guest or patient rooms at hospitals or health care facilities, or to cellphones, pagers or mobile devices.
In the Maine People Before Politics robocalls, Lauren LePage and the group are identified at the start of the call and the organization’s phone number is given at the end, as required by the FCC.
Phone numbers listed on the National Do Not Call Registry are not off limits to political calls.
In the last budget skirmish in 2013, Maine People Before Politics used a similar tactic and launched television commercials when a budget deal reached by both parties included sales, lodging and meals tax increases opposed by the governor. Lawmakers, including a number of Republicans, voted to override LePage’s veto of that budget so the ad wasn’t particularly effective in the end.
Chances are slim that the major changes House Republicans and Maine People Before Politics advocate for will make it into the final budget. The budget, which has been debated since January, is nearing its deadline for it to be in place for July 1. The attacks from the robocalls will only likely exacerbate the rift in the Maine GOP, not close the gap on the final budget deal.