All Authors >

COLIN WOODARD

Latest Articles

The Making of Paul LePage, Part 2

Rise to Power
Governor Paul LePage has made plenty of waves in his first year in office, and has many wondering where his sometimes provocative political attitudes come from. In this two part series we ask: who is Paul LePage?

By: COLIN WOODARD | January 18, 2012

The Making of Paul LePage, Part 1

Escaping Poverty; or, the Horatio Alger Years
Governor Paul LePage generated more controversy and negative press in his first year in office than most Maine politicians do in their entire careers.

By: COLIN WOODARD | January 18, 2012

Who is behind the controversial regulatory takings bill?

On the takings
Who is behind the controversial regulatory takings bill?

By: COLIN WOODARD | December 21, 2011

LePage's transparency problem

Governor's staff fights public-records requests, even those that help them
This spring, a potentially explosive rumor began circulating among Maine's political insiders.

By: COLIN WOODARD | November 09, 2011

Who bankrolled Portland’s mayoral candidates?

Following the money
Friday afternoon, Portland's 15 mayoral candidates disclosed how much money they'd raised and who gave it to them.

By: COLIN WOODARD | November 02, 2011

Excerpt: American Nations

A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America
On a hot late-August day in 2010, television personality Glenn Beck held a rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the forty-seventh anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

By: COLIN WOODARD | October 12, 2011

Libertarian billionaire funds university enviro-lectures

Koch Brothers Watch
The University of Maine at Machias announced last week that the campus will be welcoming its first Koch Speaker on Environmentalism and Freedom on October 6.

By: COLIN WOODARD | September 21, 2011

LePage’s Koch Brothers connection revealed

Corporate coziness
If you're looking for a poster child for the corrupting influence of corporate money in politics, you'd have a hard time doing better than the American Legislative Exchange Council.

By: COLIN WOODARD | September 07, 2011

Governor to nominate favored lobbyist to MPBN board

Up in the air
Governor Paul LePage doesn't much like the Maine Public Broadcasting Network.

By: COLIN WOODARD | August 17, 2011

The LePage Files

Confidential administration dossiers show governor is skilled at copying corporate and lobbyist wish lists
Confidential administration dossiers show Governor Paul LePage crafted significant portions of his regulatory reform agenda by literally copying and pasting passages from the memos his staff received from corporate lobbyists and their clients, turning swaths of it into little more than a set of giveaways to favored companies.

By: COLIN WOODARD | July 20, 2011

How the GOP rammed through huge changes in Maine’s health-care system

Republicans unleashed
When Governor Paul LePage boarded a plane for an unscheduled Jamaican vacation in early April, Maine moderates and progressives breathed a sigh of relief.

By: COLIN WOODARD | June 09, 2011

Nuclear waste: Disclose no evil

Maine Yankee Watch
After weeks of waiting, we have received some of the long-delayed monthly safety reports for Maine's high-level nuclear-waste facility at the former Maine Yankee Atomic Power Plant in Wiscasset.

By: COLIN WOODARD | May 25, 2011

GOP lawmakers want to do DeCoster 'a favor'

How Soon We Forget Dept.
Jack DeCoster is possibly the most infamous Maine businessman of all time.

By: COLIN WOODARD | April 27, 2011

Maine nuke reports missing

Seeking solace
With Japan in the midst of the most serious nuclear power plant mishap since Chernobyl, Mainers may have been looking for reassurances regarding the spent fuel stranded at what was once Maine Yankee.

By: COLIN WOODARD | March 30, 2011

LePage's secret puppeteers

How the governor outsourced his regulatory-reform efforts to corporate lobbyists
It was no surprise that Governor Paul LePage would seek to reform Maine's environmental regulations.

By: COLIN WOODARD | February 10, 2011

Scarcelli’s firm takes heat in Mississippi

Housing slump
Former gubernatorial and prospective US Senate candidate Rosa Scarcelli has had a lot of bad press of late, courtesy of her husband's role in creating an anonymous website that sought to smear another Blaine House candidate, Eliot Cutler. Now the company Scarcelli runs is being pilloried in southwestern Mississippi, apparently on account of the actions of her mother.

By: COLIN WOODARD | February 09, 2011

LePage's secret bankers

How much the governor really owes, and to which special-interest groups
Paul LePage was making national headlines last week for all the wrong reasons: telling the NAACP to "kiss my butt" on the eve of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, dismissing the civil-rights organization as a "special interest" he won't be "held hostage" by after its local director expressed concern at his declining to participate in MLK Day events his predecessors had (see more here ).

By: COLIN WOODARD | January 19, 2011

1 |