You have to admire the governor’s chutzpah. He never misses a chance to exert leverage or extract political concessions. If there’s a weakness or opportunity to be exploited, he’s on it.

In the hands of a more skillful politician, that might be an enormous strength. “Tact,” as Winston Churchill put it, “is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip.” Gov. LePage mastered only the “go to hell” part.

Unable to inspire action through the merit of his ideas, the magnanimity of his personality or a capacity for skillful deal making, LePage governs by coercion.

And that undermines and politicizes the governmental institution he targets. Exhibit A is the governor’s recent announcement that he would withhold $11.4 million in bonds for the Land for Maine’s Future program until the Legislature approves a 27 percent increase in timber harvesting on public lands.

The governor even said he’d personally review and approve projects based on unannounced criteria, even though each one is vetted and approved by an LMF board consisting almost entirely of his own appointees.

William Vail, the LMF board chair and LePage appointee, said, “(The board) was designed to be separate from politics and political strategy. The notion of holding those funds hostage until he accomplishes some element of his political agenda just seems inappropriate.”

When LePage called on the Maine Community College system president to resign, despite that authority resting with the system’s board, L.L. Bean President and CEO Chris McCormick, a LePage appointee to the board, said, “It’s fair to say that the governor’s statements and request for John Fitzsimmons to step down are appalling and grossly misinformed.”

In the wake of the governor’s comments, however, Fitzsimmons voluntarily resigned because LePage “threatened further harm” to the system.

Last week, abetted by House Minority Leader Ken Fredette, R-Newport, LePage upended a legislative proposal to reinsert the word “and” into the 2013 omnibus energy bill after a drafting error omitted the word from the final text.

The duo instead proposed not only adding the “and,” but creating a cabinet-level energy commissioner and empowering the governor to hire and fire the Efficiency Maine Trust executive director, something only its board (all LePage appointees) can do.

The omnibus energy bill resulted from hard fought, good faith legislative compromise. The bill enjoyed such broad bipartisan support that the Legislature actually overrode LePage’s veto to enact it.

So after learning of the LePage-Fredette proposal, Rep. Larry Dunphy, R-Embden, remarked, “We had an agreement. We shook hands. We all made concessions to make that bill happen. I think it’s a matter of integrity that we simply do what we agreed to do.”

Sen. Roger Katz, R-Augusta, said, “I just personally think that any effort to extract additional concessions in order to fix a clerical error is wrong.”

But apparently LePage and Fredette don’t think so.

Many Republicans, especially LePage, harbor deep antagonisms toward Efficiency Maine, believing it’s a bastion of liberal waste requiring curtailment, restructuring or elimination.

The irony is lost on them that the efficiency programs actually reduce electricity costs for Maine homeowners and businesses, the singular objective of the governor’s energy policy.

As a result, LePage and Fredette couldn’t support a “clean fix” to the omnibus energy bill that restores funding predictability for the Efficiency Maine Trust.

Instead, they proposed a power grab that enables the governor to work his political will with an independent agency already facing a newly politicized Public Utilities Commission.

By interfering with and politicizing independent boards – whether the Efficiency Maine Trust, LMF, the Community College system or others – the governor is setting a dangerous precedent.

Not only is he empowering successors of either party to behave in-kind, he’s dismantling the checks and balances of independent governance and endeavoring to replace it with a system of political patronage.

Legislators should be appalled at the gradual usurpation of their power and, as a co-equal branch of government, vigorously reinsert themselves into the process.

They should demand distinct bills creating a new energy commissioner and allowing the Efficiency Maine Trust executive director to serve at the pleasure of the governor. If the bills have merit, and the former likely does, they should be capable of standing on their own without a need to attach them to a wholly unrelated bill.

And beyond the politics of the moment, we must each ask ourselves if this is the type of government we actually want, where decisions are continually evaluated through the merciless lens of political advantage, gamesmanship and retribution?

Do we wish Augusta to operate more like Washington, D.C.? Because that’s where we’re headed with Gov. LePage blazing the trail.

Michael Cuzzi is a former campaign aide to President Obama. He manages the Boston and Portland offices of VOX Global. He can be contatcted at:

mjcuzzi@gmail.com

Twitter @CuzziMJ

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