This election, I hope people will consider what Paul LePage and the Republicans have done the past two years.

LePage insults and embarrasses the state when he tells the NAACP to “kiss my butt.” He goes on to insult IRS employees and many Mainers by comparing the IRS to the Gestapo. He declares, without any specific examples, that “state employees are as corrupt as can be,” while LePage himself hires his daughter for a plum position and his wife claims permanent-resident tax exemptions in Maine and Florida at the same time.

LePage dismisses the hazards of the chemical BPA by saying the “worst case is some women may have little beards.” LePage causes an unnecessary controversy by removing a mural depicting historical moments of the labor movement because of an anonymous complaint from a “secret admirer.”

Meanwhile, Republicans in Maine’s Legislature push for extreme roll-backs in environmental protection rules in LD 1. They propose severe cuts to state retirees’ retirement income, the average of which is only $19,000 per year.

Republicans slash benefits to the poor, while mismanaging the Department of Health and Human Services budget and misrepresenting it to the Legislature. Republicans pass legislation that empowers insurance companies to charge older Mainers 500 percent higher premiums than younger Mainers, and increase premiums 10 percent without prior approval (LD 1333).

Republicans made fireworks legal, causing many municipalities to struggle with the public safety and nuisance concerns of citizens. Republicans gutted the Maine Clean Election law.

I hope others will remember these “accomplishments” and vote Democratic.

Marilyn J. Eccles

Sidney