AUGUSTA

Gov. Paul LePage told reporters in an interview Friday that he is mulling a run for Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud’s congressional seat and said that any fundraising he has done for the 2014 gubernatorial campaign could be donated to domestic violence causes.

In response to a reporter’s question about whether inflammatory comments he made Thursday about Sen. Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, would hurt his gubernatorial campaign, LePage said, “Who said I’m running?”

“I’m considering running for Mike Michaud’s seat if you want to know the truth because it can’t be any worse in Washington than it is here,” LePage said. “Everything’s on the table. Retirement, Social Security, running for Congress, maybe going back to Marden’s to stock shelves, who knows. I don’t take myself as seriously as all you do.”

LePage also offered an apology for comments he made Thursday that targeted Jackson, but his apology wasn’t directed at Jackson.

“It was never my intent to ever, ever suggest that the loggers of the state of Maine are in the same league as Troy Jackson,” LePage said. “I owe that apology. … it wasn’t meant to offend anybody. I will say this: it was intended to wake the Maine people up. We had a balanced budget. We had room to sit down and fix things they’re concerned about. But taxation right now is not appropriate. It is simply not what we need when we’re the 50th worst place in the nation to do business.”

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