PORTLAND, Maine — Republican Gov. Paul LePage said out-of-state drug dealers are impregnating “young, white” girls. His remarks were quickly derided by critics Thursday as racial fearmongering.
LePage, talking about Maine’s heroin epidemic, described the drug dealers as “guys with the name ‘D-Money,’ ‘Smoothie,’ ‘Shifty,’ ” adding that “they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave.”
LePage, who is white, didn’t describe the races of the dealers Wednesday at a Bridgton town meeting. His chief of communications, Peter Steele, said Thursday he wasn’t making a comment about race.But moderate Republican and LePage critic Lance Dutson, who called attention to the remark, said the governor was playing to people’s fears.
“This is one of the most blatantly racist statements he’s ever made,” said Dutson, a former CEO of the conservative Maine Heritage Policy Center, which helped create the GOP group Get Right Maine to combat extremism.
LePage is known for speaking his mind. Soon after he was elected to his first term, he told the Portland chapter of the NAACP to “kiss my butt.”
