Maine’s Tea Party governor insults half of his state with smug, hand-written note to constituent

Maine's GOP governor used official letterhead to pen an angry letter to a constituent on July 16, according to the Maine Beacon.

In blue ink, Gov. Paul LePage wrote a brief but testy response to constituent Louise Sullivan of Cape Elizabeth, a coastal town in southern Maine. She had asked him to resign.

Louise,

I bet you would like me to resign. You live in the south who exploit those who are not so fortunate, or understand the kind of corruption that southern Mainers ignore and welcome!

Regards,

Governor Paul R. LePage

P.S. Not going to happen!

The Beacon points out that LePage's letter insults half his state -- but there is a big cultural divide between rural northern and more cosmopolitan southern Maine. The distinction is extreme enough that a Republican lawmaker has proposed dividing the state in half, and calling the southern part "Northern Massachusetts," according to Boston.com.

It's not the first time LePage has gone off the rails with pointed, hand-written notes to constituents. According to Business Insider, he wrote an apology letter to a high school student after saying he wanted to kill the student's father, who is a cartoonist for the Bangor Daily News.

LePage, a Tea Party conservative, has been accused of hard-knuckle politics and corruption himself, according to Politico. He's facing a bipartisan abuse of power investigation, a federal lawsuit alleging blackmail and the beginnings of an impeachment attempt.

The constituent, Louise Sullivan, is the mother of Reuters reporter Andy Sullivan, Business Insider reports. Sullivan posted a photo of the letter from LePage to his Facebook page with the caption, "America's Wackiest Governor wrote my mother back!" It's been shared 336 times.

Here's LePage taking questions from reporters at a press conference earlier this year, via Andi Parkinson's YouTube page: