Broads these days, amirite?!
As many Americans were celebrating "Back to the Future" day, Maine Governor Paul LePage attended a town-hall meeting and hopped in his own time machine, going back to the 1950s to deliver a
jaw-dropping, sexist remark:
At a town hall meeting in Auburn on Wednesday night, Governor Paul LePage once again lashed out against Question 1, a citizen initiative to increase election transparency and strengthen Maine’s Clean Elections Act.
“That’s like giving my wife my checkbook. I’m telling you, it’s giving your wife your checkbook,” said LePage.
Hahaha! See, you can't just let the little lady run around with the checkbook! She'll probably spend it all buying new dress patterns at Woolworths. And heaven help us if she has the checkbook at a Tupperware party! She might even waste money on that pillbox hat she's been cackling about with her hens. Governor LePage is getting the vapors just thinking about it.
Needless to say, the little ladies of Maine are not happy about his comments:
“The governor’s attitude toward women, toward relationships and toward money are so dated as to be bizarre,” said Eliza Townsend, executive director of the Maine Women’s Lobby in response to the comment. “The Maine Women’s Lobby supports Question 1 because we know that a legislature made up of Mainers with a variety of backgrounds and experiences will make better decisions for all of us.”
Clean Elections has been particularly beneficial to women candidates. The number of women running and winning election[s] increased significantly after passage of the original Clean Elections Act and a 2003 survey of candidates by the Maine Citizen Leadership Fund found that women were more likely than men to say that access to the public financing option was very important in their decision to run for office.
Watch Governor LePage hop in his time machine and set the clock for the 1955 below the fold.