Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

January 23, 2011

Bill Nemitz: Dems may regret silence on suspect nominees

Most refer to them, with all due respect, as Gov. Paul LePage's fledgling Cabinet. But as they march through the Maine Legislature en route to their lofty new offices, another moniker comes to mind.

Citizens of Maine, meet Easy Company.

"Easy" as in sliding through legislative confirmation hearings like a warm knife through butter.

"Easy" as in unanimous Senate confirmation votes in which politically correct bipartisanship -- at least for now -- trumps common-sense evaluation.

"Easy" as in, "If you're good enough for the guv, gosh-darnit, then you're good enough for us!"

"I think we're going along," conceded state Sen. Joe Brannigan, D-Portland, when asked Friday to explain the Democratic minority's strategy for vetting and voting on LePage's Cabinet nominees. "I think what you've seen is what you'll get."

That approach makes perfect sense for some who have waltzed through the confirmation process on solid knowledge and well-documented experience -- Sawin Millett, who's served in three past administrations and is widely regarded as an expert in all things budgetary, for example, was a no-brainer for commissioner of the Department of Administrative and Financial Services.

But at least two other nominees -- Philip A. Congdon for the Department of Economic and Community Development and Mary Mayhew for the Department of Health and Human Services -- illustrate just how easy it is to take over a branch of Maine's state government these days with a resume somewhere between weak and worrisome.

Congdon, an engineer from Bristol who worked for Texas Instruments for 20 years and first met LePage at a meeting of the Constitutionalists of Maine (Congdon no longer belongs), raised nary an eyebrow Thursday when he told the Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee that his background in economic development is "thin."

"I have, I think, a strong business background. As far as community economic development, I'll tell you right now, I haven't done it," Congdon, 69, told the legislators. "But I'll also tell you that I am convinced that I can."

No experience? No problem!

Even after Congdon told one lawmaker that attracting businesses to Aroostook County and other rural areas is an issue "I haven't thought about," the committee gave him a unanimous thumbs-up and sent his nomination on to the Senate.

Then there's Mayhew, who until recently worked as vice president and chief lobbyist for the Maine Hospital Association and now is poised to take over DHHS.

LePage, by his own admission, has had a devil of a time finding someone to take what is arguably the toughest of all Cabinet jobs. In addition to its $3.1 billion budget, 3,600-member work force and myriad complex programs, DHHS has become a political lightning rod for those, including the governor, who have all but declared open season on welfare in Maine.

Enter Mayhew, just 12 days into her new gig as a senior policy adviser to LePage, who kept her game face on even as the boss joked that he'd "been rejected by more women (for DHHS comish) in the last two weeks than in four years of high school and six of college."

Setting aside LePage's tacit admission that the DHHS slot had to add a touch of femininity to an otherwise all-male Cabinet (Our new governor believes in quotas! Who knew?), a careful read of the administration's biographical sketch for Mayhew reveals no management or chief executive experience whatsoever.

Rather, since she graduated from the University of Arkansas with a degree in political science, she's worked exclusively as a government lobbyist and media spokeswoman for a litany of, dare we say, special interests in Augusta. (The Maine Beer and Wine Wholesalers Association, the Maine Association of Insurance Companies and Central Maine Power, to name but a few.)

(Continued on page 2)

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