AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage is promoting two of his staff members to take on legal positions in his office following the departure of Dan Billings, who served as LePage’s chief legal counsel until he was sworn in last month as a district court judge.
LePage is promoting his deputy legal counsel, Michael Cianchette, to chief legal counsel, and he’s promoting Carlisle McLean, who has served as natural resources policy adviser, to general counsel and senior natural resources policy adviser.
Cianchette, who has worked in LePage’s office since January 2011, earned both a law degree and a master’s in business administration from Suffolk University in 2010. A member of the U.S. Navy Reserve, Cianchette served under Billings as deputy counsel until Billing’s departure. He holds a bachelor’s from Boston College.
McLean has been LePage’s liaison to the state’s natural resource agencies since she joined the governor’s staff in February 2011. Before that, she spent six years working in the Environmental Law and Climate Strategy groups at the law firm Preti Flaherty.
At Preti Flaherty, McLean represented clients before the Land Use Regulation Commission, the Board of Environmental Protection and other state agencies. Her clients included private developers, including wind developers.
She holds a law degree from Pace University, a master’s in environmental management from Yale University and a bachelor’s from Bates College.
Both McLean and Cianchette live in Cumberland.
“Both individuals have been tremendous assets on staff, and I have the utmost confidence that each will serve the people of Maine extraordinarily well in their new capacities,” LePage said in a statement.
Ah-yup, it might seem good to be promoting loyal cronies, from within.
Sounds kinda okay, to promote your staff, on the surface of it.
But everyone should be asking why do you need to replace your lawyer with two new ones, Govenah ?
Will being the defending attorney’s of record on the pending Count case over your ill conceived policies mean that they can’t be subpoenaed to testify on how they were formed ?
It is the hope, we might think.
So is how you’ve gone about it really resulting in less, not more, big government, Guv ?
At least this time he didn’t go for a couple more family members! He’s either learning societal norms or he’s running out of LePages willing to work.
Does that leave 2 vacant positions? If so I got to make bets on how long it would be before a family member is hired
LePage said he was going to create jobs. He just created 4 more jobs: the 2 in the story plus the 2 jobs those people vacated. Keep up the good work guv!
LaPage wants to cut so many programs yet his cabinet keeps getting bigger. Will someone please teach LePage basic math, like a debit and a credit
Two were already there . Same two are still there. Talk about math problems.
Why don’t you give it a try, teach him about debits and credits which is not basic math but accounting.
Oh! Don’ t worry!
It’s Lepage Math!That’s One for you, Two for Me, One for you, Two For Me, Ect, Ect, Ect,
No matter what the governor does, most of the commenters will never approve. I believe that is defined as left wing tunnel vision.
For all we know, maybe 1 or more might be a cousin without the Lepage name? lol I dont think it would surprise any of us at this point.
I don’ t understand the economics, when trying to cut spending, of hiring two to take the place of one!!!!
Excellent choices and excellent attorneys, both. So far the naysayers have been soundly wrong on a factual basis each time. Plus, I trust they will yelling foul just as loud when the next democratic administration employs trusted associtates and the occasional family member. Didn’t JFK have a brother for Attorney General of the US…?
Hypocrisy is a poor trait for a political party. And class warfare is a poor excuse for a campaign.
It doesn’t count when the Dems. hire family and friends. Both parties have been doing this since day one. But it gives the Dems. something to cry about.
Pointing fingers at the Kennedy administration, which is almost 50 years behind us, seems to justify further wrong doing.
Are you saying your party is better or just that your party is winning ‘the race to the bottom”?
Yeah, wouldn’t want to open the search or focus on credentials — I mean, why bother?
According to the story Cianchette has less than 2 years experience since he graduated. That doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence. Perhaps LePage needs to get them young before they start thinking on their own.
Read the Ciachette’s CV a little more closely and you will see that he has more than 2 years experience. He graduated college in 2006 and worked for the Massachusetts State Legislature as a Policy Analyst on Health Care and Public Service issues. He then returned to academia and earned dual Master of Business Administration/Juris Doctor degrees cum laude in just 3 years.
This young man is obviously smart and motivated and we ought to be celebrating the fact that he returned to Maine and is devoting at least the early part of his career to public service. I have no doubt he could have joined a law firm to earn far more money than he is being paid as a public servant.
Experience is not the sole determinant of an individual’s potential to bring value to an organization.
Though perhaps you know better I don’t see 2006 anywhere in the article. No, I didn’t follow up on his online CV. Regardless, my guess is that Ciachette is looking to develop a career in politics. All the markers are there.
you are correct: the 2006 reference does not appear in the body of the article. You need to follow the hperlink in the article to the BDN bio on Chianchette to find his educational and work background. I suspect you are right with respect to his political ambitions. Nevertheless, its difficult not to argue that he appears to a bright, motivated young man.
Sure I’ll give you that, bright, motivated, and young. I did look at the online bio and honestly I wish I had done that well in college. Other than the lack of experience my only criticism would be his choice of political affiliations and making a connection with the LePage administration. Perhaps these choices demonstrate how important a role experience actually plays in the decision making process.
When it said LePage promoted someone from ‘within’ I figured it was just another family member.
Are these relatives?