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      How Paul LePage, Running to Lead Maine, Benefited From Florida Tax Breaks

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      Mr. LePage, a former governor who is seeking to reclaim the office, has along with his wife benefited from property tax breaks reserved for permanent Florida residents, public records show.As governor of Maine for two terms until 2019, Paul LePage, a Republican, gained a reputation as one of the pre-Trump era’s most unfiltered politicians.He said he wanted to tell President Barack Obama to “go to hell,” and told the N.A.A.C.P. to “kiss my butt.” He made racist comments about drug dealers who supposedly travel to Maine and “impregnate a young white girl before they leave.”Making a comeback attempt now against his successor, Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, Mr. LePage is focusing heavily in his campaign on a push to phase out Maine’s income tax. He argues that the change is needed to keep wealthy residents from moving to Florida for just long enough each year to take advantage of the Sunshine State’s tax breaks.But Mr. LePage and his wife, Ann LePage, who have owned property in Florida for over a decade, have themselves benefited from that state’s tax laws while living in the Maine governor’s mansion, and again as he campaigns to return to the job. From 2009 to 2015, and also from 2018 through the end of this year, the couple received property tax breaks reserved for permanent Florida residents, public records show.The properties in question, both in Ormond Beach, Fla., are a home that the LePages bought in 2008 and sold in 2017, and another that they purchased in 2018 and still own. For both homes, the couple have sought and received what is called a homestead exemption, which is meant to apply only to primary residences in Florida.The sum the couple saved over the years is relatively small: A little over $8,500, according to a New York Times analysis of public records.But this is not the first time the LePages have faced scrutiny over such a tax matter — in 2010, Florida officials fined Mrs. LePage $1,400 before rescinding the penalty — and Mr. LePage’s focus on taxes in the current campaign for governor could open him up to attacks from Democrats.Mr. LePage’s campaign defended the tax moves, saying that Mrs. LePage’s mother had used the Florida home as her primary residence from 2009 until her death in 2015, when the couple removed the first homestead exemption. Mrs. LePage’s mother had scleroderma, a chronic disease that causes hardening of the skin.“Mrs. LePage’s mother would visit Augusta, but due to her condition, she spent a large amount of time, especially in cooler fall, winter and spring periods, at that permanent residence” in Florida, said Brent Littlefield, a spokesman for Mr. LePage’s campaign. “Mrs. LePage also traveled there in winter months to care for her. Her mother kept that as her primary residence while she was alive.”The campaign did not comment on the second exemption held from 2018 through this year. Attempts to reach Mrs. LePage directly were unsuccessful.The State of the 2022 Midterm ElectionsWith the primaries over, both parties are shifting their focus to the general election on Nov. 8.Inflation Concerns Persist: In the six-month primary season that has just ended, several issues have risen and fallen, but nothing has dislodged inflation and the economy from the top of voters’ minds.Herschel Walker: The Republican Senate candidate in Georgia claimed his business donated 15 percent of its profits to charities. Three of the four groups named as recipients say they didn’t receive money.North Carolina Senate Race: Are Democrats about to get their hearts broken again? The contest between Cheri Beasley, a Democrat, and her G.O.P. opponent, Representative Ted Budd, seems close enough to raise their hopes.Echoing Trump: Six G.O.P. nominees for governor and the Senate in critical midterm states, all backed by former President Donald J. Trump, would not commit to accepting this year’s election results.At campaign events, Mr. LePage has spoken about the couple’s home in Florida, and has criticized a Maine law requiring residents who split their time between the two states — so-called snowbirds — to spend at least 183 days, or just over half a year, in Florida in order to pay the state’s lighter tax burden.“We go down to Naples, Fla., to raise money from Mainers because that’s where all the money is — and it’s unfortunate that they have to leave for six months and a day,” Mr. LePage said in Bangor last month. “I have no problem going to Florida. We go to Florida, we have a home in Florida, but it’s for January and February, not for six months and a day. It’s unfortunate that we have this crazy tax and this is what happens.”But while Mr. LePage said that he and his wife were in Florida for only a couple of months a year, they have painted a different picture for Florida’s tax collectors over the years.In his final months as governor, Mr. LePage told reporters in November 2018 that he had a home in Florida and planned to move there because the state had no income tax. But by that time, records show, he and his wife had already claimed a homestead exemption on their Ormond Beach property — indicating that Florida had been the primary residence of Maine’s governor and first lady since March 2018, when they bought the home.That assertion meant that the four-bedroom home, about 15 minutes from the Atlantic Ocean, was eligible for a Florida homestead exemption, which shaves $50,000 from the taxable value of qualified primary residences in the state.After leaving office in 2019 because of Maine’s prohibition on serving a third consecutive term, Mr. LePage obtained a Florida driver’s license and registered to vote in the state. Then, in February 2020, he said he was considering a bid for a third term, and when he announced his run last year he cited criticisms of Ms. Mills’s response to the pandemic. He switched his voter registration back to Maine in 2020 and publicized pictures of himself putting Maine license plates back on his car.The couple have rented a home in Edgecomb, Maine, since 2020, and Mr. LePage has been campaigning in the state for much of the past year. But it was not until this June that Ann LePage informed a property appraiser in Florida that she and her husband were no longer residents of that state, according to the county appraiser’s office. The tax break will stay in effect through the end of this year, according to an official in the appraiser’s office in Flagler County, Fla., which handled the matter.Jon Alper, a Florida lawyer who specializes in asset protection, said the circumstances of the LePages’ homestead exemption claims were “certainly atypical.”“It’s possible under the law, but usually if one spouse is in the house, they’re both in the house,” he said.Mr. LePage and his wife, Ann, in 2014. They have owned two homes in Florida, one bought in 2008 and sold in 2017, and another that they purchased in 2018 and still own.Robert F. Bukaty/Associated PressThe LePages have struggled with tax issues while toggling between the two states for more than a decade.In 2008, while Mr. LePage was mayor of Waterville, Maine, his wife bought a home in Ormond Beach, not far from the home they would buy a decade later in the same city. She claimed the Florida homestead exemption even though she was also claiming a homestead exemption on a house she owned in Waterville. Both states require homeowners to certify that a property is their main residence in order to qualify for the exemption.That misstep was reported in 2010, during Mr. LePage’s first campaign for governor. Florida tax officials originally fined Mrs. LePage $1,400 for misleading them about her residency status in the state, but they withdrew the penalty shortly after, citing an explanation from Mrs. LePage that her mother, Rita DeRosby, was living in the house. A seldom-used provision in the Florida tax code allows homeowners to claim a homestead exemption if a dependent is residing on the property.Months after Mrs. LePage was cleared of wrongdoing, Ms. DeRosby joined the family’s move into the Maine governor’s mansion, according to local reports. When Ms. DeRosby died in 2015, her obituary said that she had “spent the last eight years of her life residing” with her daughter and Mr. LePage.Mr. LePage’s campaign proposal to eliminate Maine’s state income tax has prompted criticism from some Democratic officials that local governments would be forced to raise property taxes to offset costs.While he was governor, Mr. LePage tried to eliminate Maine’s homestead exemption, a proposal that would have denied an estimated 213,000 Mainers benefits similar to those he enjoyed in Florida, according to an analysis by the left-leaning Maine Center for Economic Policy. More

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      Sotomayor accuses supreme court conservatives of dismantling church-state separation

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      Sotomayor accuses supreme court conservatives of dismantling church-state separationLiberal justice delivers warning after ruling that state of Maine cannot exclude religious schools from tuition programme The liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor has warned that the US supreme court is dismantling the wall between church and state, after the conservative majority ruled that the state of Maine cannot exclude religious schools from a tuition programme.‘I got in the car and he blindfolded me. I was willing to risk death’: five women on abortions before RoeRead moreIn a dissent to the ruling in Carson v Makin, released on Tuesday, Sotomayor wrote: “This court continues to dismantle the wall of separation between church and state that the framers fought to build.“… In just a few years, the court has upended constitutional doctrine, shifting from a rule that permits states to decline to fund religious organisations to one that requires states in many circumstances to subsidise religious indoctrination with taxpayer dollars.”Progressives fear other rulings due this month, among them a case set to bring down Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling which established the right to abortion, and a ruling on a New York law set to loosen gun regulations even after several horrific mass shootings.Supreme court justices often claim not to rule according to political beliefs but few serious observers give such claims any credence.In the Maine case, John Roberts, the chief justice, wrote for the conservative majority. In Roberts’ view, the tuition programme violated the free exercise clause of the first amendment to the US constitution, because it said private schools were “eligible to receive the payments, so long as they [we]re ‘nonsectarian’”.Roberts wrote: “Regardless of how the benefit and restriction are described, the programme operates to identify and exclude otherwise eligible schools on the basis of their religious exercise.”A conservative, Roberts was appointed by George W Bush. Since Republicans rammed three new justices on to the court under Donald Trump, the chief justice has become in some cases a voice for moderation. Not this time.Sotomayor wrote: “While purporting to protect against discrimination of one kind, the court requires Maine to fund what many of its citizens believe to be discrimination of other kinds.”The main dissent was written by Stephen Breyer, at 83 the oldest of three liberals on the nine-judge panel. Breyer will soon retire, to be replaced by Ketanji Brown Jackson, Joe Biden’s first pick and the first Black woman confirmed to the court.Like her fellow liberal Elena Kagan, Sotomayor was nominated by Barack Obama.Concluding her dissent, Sotomayor wrote: “What a difference five years makes. In 2017, I feared that the court was ‘lead[ing] us … to a place where separation of church and state is a constitutional slogan, not a constitutional commitment’.“Today, the court leads us to a place where separation of church and state becomes a constitutional violation. If a state cannot offer subsidies to its citizens without being required to fund religious exercise, any state that values its historic antiestablishment interests more than this court does will have to curtail the support it offers to its citizens.“With growing concern for where this court will lead us next, I respectfully dissent.”Sonia Sotomayor says supreme court’s ‘mistakes’ can be corrected over timeRead moreHer words caused a stir. Antony Michael Kreis, a law professor and political scientist at Georgia State University, wrote: “Sotomayor is not having it today.”Nonetheless, Roberts’ ruling was further evidence of a court in conservatives’ grip.Last week, addressing progressive lawyers in Washington, Sotomayor said: “There are days I get discouraged. There are moments where I am deeply, deeply disappointed. And yes, there have been moments when I’ve stopped and said, ‘Is this worth it any more?’“And every time when I do that, I lick my wounds for a while, sometimes I cry, and then I say, ‘OK, let’s fight.’”TopicsUS supreme courtLaw (US)MaineUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Pro-Trump Republicans’ primary wins raise alarm about US democracy

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      Pro-Trump Republicans’ primary wins raise alarm about US democracyCrucial races from Nevada to South Carolina returned candidates who back ‘big lie’ of stolen election while Democrats lost Hispanic votes in south Texas In pivotal primary races from Nevada to South Carolina on Tuesday, Republican voters chose candidates who fervently embraced Donald Trump’s lie about a stolen election, prompting warnings from Democrats that US democracy will be at stake in the November elections.Victories of pro-Trump candidates in Nevada set the stage for match-ups between election-deniers and embattled Democrats in a state both parties see as critical in the midterms.Is rising Maga star Ron DeSantis the man to displace Trump in 2024?Read moreIn South Carolina, a vote to impeach Trump for inciting the January 6 insurrection proved one Republican’s undoing while another survived the former president’s wrath to win the nomination.In south Texas, where Hispanic voters have shifted sharply toward the Republican party, a Republican flipped a House seat long held by a Democrat. The loss was a stark warning that Democrats’ standing with a crucial voting bloc is slipping.Nevada, a swing state that has trended Democratic in past election cycles, will play host to a number of consequential races this fall, for House, Senate, governor and secretary of state, as Democrats seek to defend narrow majorities in Congress.In the 50-50 Senate, every race will matter. But the party is saddled with a deeply unpopular president in a political system primed for revolt against the party in power. Inflation and the war in Ukraine have caused the cost of food and gas to shoot up while angst over gun violence and a shortage of baby formula deepens voter frustration.Republicans view the Nevada Senate race as one of their best chances of flipping a Democratic seat. They also sense an opportunity to make inroads in a state dominated by Democrats who were guided to power by the late Senate majority leader, Harry Reid. The senator up for re-election, Catherine Cortez Masto, was his chosen successor.Adam Laxalt, a former state attorney general endorsed by Trump, easily won the Republican primary to take on Cortez Masto in one of the most fiercely contested races of the cycle.Jim Marchant, a former lawmaker who has dabbled in the QAnon conspiracy theory and openly embraced the idea of overturning elections, will be the Republican nominee to become secretary of state, and therefore the top election official in a swing state that could be crucial to determining the presidential contest in 2024.The elevation of election-denying Republicans across the US comes even as a bipartisan House panel investigating the Capitol attack unspools damning testimony from Trump’s inner circle, discrediting the former president’s claims.In South Carolina, Republicans ousted the five-term incumbent, Tom Rice, who crossed Trump and loyalists by voting to impeach the former president.Rice was defeated by Russell Fry, a Republican state lawmaker backed by Trump. The result was a welcome one for Trump after setbacks last month in races where Trump sought retribution against Republicans who rebuffed his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.But as in Georgia, there were limits to his influence. Another Republican House incumbent, Nancy Mace, fended off a Trump-backed challenger. Unlike in Rice’s staunchly conservative district, Mace – who did not vote to impeach but did criticise Trump – held on by attracting support from suburban voters who abandoned the party during the Trump years.On social media, Trump spun the evening as a resounding success. Mace’s challenger, Katie Arrington, he said, was a “very long-shot” who “did FAR better than anticipated”.“The ‘Impeacher’ was ousted without even a runoff. a GREAT night!,” Trump wrote on his social media site, Truth Social, about Rice.In Maine, Jared Golden, one of the few Democrats to represent a House district Trump carried, will attempt to defy political gravity in a rematch against the seat’s former representative, Bruce Poliquin. Golden narrowly beat Poliquin in the anti-Trump wave of 2018. With political winds reversed, Poliquin hopes to regain the seat.The state’s combative former governor, Paul LePage, is also attempting a comeback. Facing no opposition, he clinched the Republican nomination to run against the incumbent, Janet Mills.Perhaps most worrying for Democrats was the loss in south Texas. A Republican state representative, Mayra Flores, cruised to victory, avoiding a runoff against her main Democratic opponent, Dan Sanchez, in a special election to fill a seat vacated by a Democratic congressman, Filemón Vela.Flores will have to run again in November. Because of redistricting, she is set to square off against the Democratic congressman Vicente Gonzalez in a district considerably more left-leaning than the one she will temporarily represent.Nevertheless, some prognosticators moved their ratings for the district in Republicans’ favor, citing gains among Hispanic voters in the Rio Grande Valley.In a memo from the National Republican Congressional Committee obtained by CNN, the party touted Flores’ victory as the culmination of efforts to recruit and run more diverse candidates and said it offered a “blueprint for success in South Texas”.It concluded: “This is the first of many Democrat-held seats that will flip Republican in 2022.”TopicsUS midterm elections 2022US politicsRepublicansDemocratsDonald TrumpNevadaSouth CarolinanewsReuse this content More

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      5 Takeaways From Tuesday’s Key Primary Races

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      From Las Vegas to Lewiston, Maine, the contours of critical midterm contests came into focus on Tuesday as Americans voted in major federal and state races across five states.In Nevada, which will be home to marquee House, Senate and governor’s races this fall, Republicans elevated several candidates who have embraced former President Donald J. Trump’s lies about a stolen election — even as candidates he endorsed had a mixed night in South Carolina, where he had sought to exact vengeance on two House incumbents.In Maine, a familiar set of characters moved into highly competitive general election races for governor and for a House seat that may be one of the most hard-fought in the nation. But in Texas, Republicans flipped a Rio Grande Valley seat — albeit only through the end of the year — as the party works to make inroads with Hispanic voters.Here are a few takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries:Election deniers prevail in Nevada.Republican candidates who have embraced Mr. Trump’s lies about election fraud were nominated for several positions of significant power in one of the most competitive political battlegrounds in the nation.They include Jim Marchant, an organizer of a network of 2020 election deniers. Mr. Marchant, who prevailed in Nevada’s Republican primary for secretary of state, is also a failed congressional candidate who declared himself a “victim of election fraud” after being defeated in 2020, and has said his “No. 1 priority will be to overhaul the fraudulent election system in Nevada.”Mr. Marchant was among an alternate slate of pro-Trump electors who sought to overturn President Biden’s victory in Nevada in 2020, and he has said he would have refused to certify the election had he been secretary of state at the time.Adam Laxalt, Nevada’s former attorney general who won his party’s Senate nomination on Tuesday with Mr. Trump’s backing, was one of the leaders of the Trump campaign’s effort to overturn the results in Nevada.Adam Laxalt during a campaign stop in Moapa Valley, Nev., on Saturday.Joe Buglewicz for The New York TimesAnd in the Republican primary to challenge Representative Steven Horsford, a Democrat, the two top finishers with 40 percent of the vote counted, according to The Associated Press, were Annie Black, a state lawmaker who said she was outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and Sam Peters, who has suggested he would not have voted to certify the 2020 election results and questioned the legitimacy of Mr. Biden’s victory.Their victories come as a bipartisan House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has showcased testimony from Mr. Trump’s onetime top advisers discussing Mr. Trump’s claims.Understand the June 14 Primary ElectionsTakeaways: Republicans who embraced former President Donald J. Trump’s election lies did well in Nevada, while his allies had a mixed night in South Carolina. Here’s what else we learned.Winners and Losers: Here is a rundown of some of the most notable wins and losses.Election Deniers Prevail: Republicans who deny the 2020 election’s result are edging closer to wielding power over the next one.Nevada Races: Trump-inspired candidates captured key wins in the swing state, setting the stage for a number of tossup contests against embattled Democrats.Texas Special Election: Mayra Flores, a Republican, flipped a House seat in the Democratic stronghold of South Texas. Her win may only be temporary, however.“He’s become detached from reality if he really believes this stuff,” William P. Barr, the former attorney general, told the panel.Critical Nevada races come into focus.Nevada cemented its status as a focal point of the political universe on Tuesday, as several marquee general election contests took shape that will have significant implications for the balance of power in Washington.Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, will face off against Mr. Laxalt, who comes from a prominent political family. His positions on issues like election integrity may run afoul of some voters in a state that hasn’t supported a Republican for president since 2004.Supporters of Joe Lombardo at his election watch party in Las Vegas Tuesday night.Bridget Bennett for The New York TimesBut Ms. Cortez Masto may be the Senate’s most vulnerable Democratic incumbent. And there are signs that Nevada, which currently has among the highest gas prices in the nation, may be notably difficult terrain for Democrats this year, as they grapple with a brutally challenging political environment shaped by issues including soaring inflation and President Biden’s weak approval rating.Those dynamics will also influence the governor’s race, as Gov. Steve Sisolak prepares for a challenge from Joe Lombardo, the Clark County sheriff. And all three of the state’s incumbent Democratic House members are running in highly competitive seats.South Carolina shows the power, and some limits, of a Trump endorsement.After the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, two House members from South Carolina broke with most of their fellow Republicans to lash Mr. Trump as complicit in the assault. On Tuesday, only one of them prevailed over a Trump-backed primary challenger.Representative Nancy Mace, who’d said she held Mr. Trump “accountable for the events that transpired, for the attack on our Capitol,” defeated her challenger, Katie Arrington, a former state lawmaker. But Representative Tom Rice, who stunned many observers with his vote to impeach Mr. Trump, lost to State Representative Russell Fry as he campaigned in a more conservative district.Russell Fry with supporters in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Tuesday night after winning the Republican primary over Representative Tom Rice.Jason Lee/The Sun News, via Associated PressA Trump endorsement is not always dispositive, as other primary election results this year have demonstrated. But the former president’s continued sway over the Republican base is undeniable. And openly challenging him remains politically dangerous for Republican candidates, as several who voted to impeach him have experienced.Despite her initial sharp criticism of Mr. Trump, Ms. Mace — who did not vote to impeach — went on to make overtures to Trump loyalists, including by issuing an appeal from outside Trump Tower as part of her broader campaign pitch.Mr. Rice, by contrast, appeared to grow sharper in his condemnations of the former president in the final stretch of the race.“It’s not about my voting record. It’s not about my support of Trump. It’s not about my ideology. It’s not because this other guy’s any good,” Mr. Rice said. “There’s only one reason why he’s doing this. And it’s just for revenge.”Making that argument proved fruitless for Mr. Rice. On Tuesday, he became the first Republican who voted for impeachment to be defeated in a primary.Republicans win in the Rio Grande Valley and call it a bellwether.Republicans are seeking to make inroads with Hispanic voters this year after doing far better than expected in parts of South Texas in 2020 — and they immediately moved to cast a special election victory in the Rio Grande Valley on Tuesday as a bellwether for the region.Understand the 2022 Midterm ElectionsCard 1 of 6Why are these midterm races so important? More

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      Who Won and Who Lost in Tuesday’s Primary Elections

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      Voters in several states weighed in on key contests in Tuesday’s primaries. Here are some of the most notable wins and losses:South CarolinaRepresentative Tom Rice, one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald J. Trump after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, was defeated by his Trump-backed challenger, State Representative Russell Fry, in the Republican primary in the Seventh Congressional District.Representative Nancy Mace, a Republican, defeated her Trump-endorsed challenger, Katie Arrington, a former state legislator, to win the party’s nomination in the First Congressional District. The race tested whether Republican primary voters prized loyalty to Mr. Trump over concerns that Ms. Arrington wasn’t a strong general election candidate. NevadaIn the state’s G.O.P. Senate primary, Adam Laxalt won his party’s nomination and will face the incumbent Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, who is seen as vulnerable this fall. Mr. Laxalt, a former attorney general, was endorsed by Mr. Trump and had helped lead Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the presidential election results in Nevada in 2020. Joe Lombardo, the Las Vegas area sheriff who was endorsed by Mr. Trump, won the Republican nomination and will challenge Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, in what is expected to be one of the tightest governor’s races in the country.Jim Marchant, one of the organizers of the “America First” slate of secretary of state candidates who continue to harbor doubts about the 2020 election, won the Republican nomination to be the state’s top election official. He will compete against Cisco Aguilar, a Democratic lawyer who ran uncontested.April Becker, a lawyer and political newcomer, won the Republican nomination in the Third Congressional District and will face Representative Susie Lee, a Democrat.TexasMayra Flores won the special election in the 34th Congressional District, flipping a seat — at least for now — that had long been held by Democrats. She’ll have the seat at least until the end of the year. It was vacated by Representative Filemon Vela, a Democrat who resigned to take a job with a lobbying firm. Ms. Flores will be the first Republican from the district and the first Latina Republican from Texas in Congress.MaineBruce Poliquin, who used to represent the Second Congressional District, won the Republican nomination for his old seat. He will challenge Representative Jared Golden, one of the country’s most endangered House Democrats, who was uncontested in his primary. More