AUGUSTA, Maine — Charlie Webster, chairman of the Maine Republican Party, confirmed Thursday that he will not seek the leadership position when the state committee meets to elect new officers on Dec. 1.
“I very much appreciate having had the opportunity to serve as your chairman and to fight for the conservative principles that we hold dear,” Webster wrote in an email to Maine Republicans. “I much appreciate the support and friendships that have resulted in my tenure as the chairman and look forward to future election successes under the new party leadership.”
Webster, 57, said he expects that Gov. Paul LePage will nominate someone to serve as chairman for the next two years.
“I’m going to let the governor’s people speak about their desire to run the party,” Webster said in a phone interview Thursday. “The governor will put forward a candidate. I do not know who that will be. Two days after the [2010] election, the governor’s people called me to say the governor wanted to run the party. I said, ‘That’s not going to happen.’”
Webster said he also expects that libertarian-leaning Republicans who supported Texas U.S. Rep. Ron Paul’s presidential candidacy will submit a nomination for party chairman.
Chris Dixon, whose Undercover Porcupine blog appears on the BDN website, wrote that David Jones of Falmouth has expressed interest in the chairmanship. Outgoing state Rep. Rich Cebra of Naples, who could not seek re-election because of term limits, also has been mentioned as a possible candidate.
“The party should not be run by one person,” Webster said. “It has to be there for everybody. We have moderates, conservatives and libertarians whose interests should be represented.”
Webster pointed to 2010’s election of LePage and Republican majorities in the Maine House and Senate as a high point during his four years as chairman. It marked the first time since 1974 that Republicans controlled both chambers of the Legislature.
The GOP lost control of the Legislature as a result of Tuesday’s legislative elections.
He said the drastic increase in the influence of campaign spending during the past four years made it more difficult to attract legislative candidates.
Controversy marked Webster’s tenure as party chairman. His aggressive work to eliminate same-day voter registration and allegations that students attending college in Maine committed voter fraud elicited national attention. Cartoonist Garry Trudeau satirized him in a “Doonesbury” cartoon series.
His handling of the presidential preference caucuses earlier this year caused some Ron Paul supporters to call for his ouster. He also drew criticism for his handling of the state convention and for his attempt to broker a compromise between national party leaders and Ron Paul delegates to the national convention.
Prior to becoming Maine Republican Party chairman, Webster served 14 years in the Legislature, including as Senate minority leader during the 1991 impasse over workers compensation that shut down state government for 16 days. He served in the Senate for five terms and in the House for two.
“I always liked running for office better than serving,” he said. “This has been a great experience. I am really excited about the fact that we were able to double small donor lists in the four years I’ve been there. That is really the message I wanted to get out. People now know the GOP represents blue-collar workers. If we keep getting that message out, we’re going to win a lot more elections.”
The Farmington resident said he plans to help recruit Republican candidates for the Maine House and Senate. Webster did not rule out a future return to party leadership.
Good news, for certain. He has tried to be a one-man- run- the- show chairman, but now he advocates otherwise–interesting.
Hopefully a young lady with fresh ideas gets the post. God, I almost sound like a democrat.
Being a Dem. is not bad, as long as your not on the far left. Being a Rep. is not bad as long as your not on the far right. We need more Ds and Rs in the middle.
…
The man is trying to be conciliatory…is that really necessary? :
I guess not. It just makes me sad.
He is not trying to be conciliatory. He is slapping at the Governor’s office and what he terms “wingnuts” as he races to quit before the December 1 meeting which would have routed him!
He has done the equivalent of pouring gasoline on the floor and tossing his lit cigar over his shoulder as he exits the building.
Watch for Charlie to put up a proxy who he mentors to run for his office.
I think you’re missing the context of my post. The man I was referring to as being conciliatory is grumpygrampa, not Charlie. Helena was critiquing his grammar.
yes the D’s found out what it is like to nominat a candidate to far left to run for the US Senate. Moderates rule.
True that one.
…
This is the best thing he could do for the GOP in Maine.
Working People Can’t Afford to Vote Republican
Good Riddance, Charlie Brown.
He’s a clown that Charlie Brown:
http://youtu.be/dS9sOCRH3MU
Please, everyone picked on Charlie Brown but at least he was likable.
How about Nichi Farnham? She’ll be out of a job. Who better to head the GOP? She often doesn’t open her mail and she appears to have some short-term and long-term memory problems (as she herself acknowledged).
She’d be perfect although Charlie’s the best. …. for the Dems!
He is good, but I think the Dems can thank the good old Guv for this political turnover. In the state election if the name had a “D” beside it I voted for it.
Great another “informed voter.”
Informed enough to realize that the only way to disable the clown in the Blaine House was to vote in a senate and house with a democratic majority. Mission accomplished.
Great idea. Let’s replace a blowhard, pig-headed, old fashioned “back room deal” type politician with a moderate political moderate.
Imagine how well that would unite the neocons and the liberty Republicans.
Good. If the R’s want to look for a reason why their candidate lost the Presidential election, Charlie Webster should be the poster child. With all the nonsense that happened under his watch it became very clear that the republican party couldn’t even play by the rules within their own party. Once it became national news they lost a big segment of the independent and libertarian vote which likely played a part in their loss in the election. Perhaps now the cartoons can stop and some work to fix this damn place can actually begin.
I am really sorry to see “Crazy Charlie” go. After all when we didn’t have Tea Party Paulie displaying his ignorance and dislike for Maine people by saying and doing stupid things we could always count on “Crazy” to say or do something stupid as a fill-in. Now we learn that Tea Party Paulie not only wants to run The State of Maine like it is his own personal kingdom , he also wants to be in total control of the Maine Republican Party as well. Apparently LePage isn’t satisfied with the number of Democrats who he helped elect to the Maine House and Senate in Tuesday’s election. I have long said that LePage was the Democrat’s “secret weapon”. I had thought that Tuesday’s results would have been enough but I guess Tea Party Paulie won’t be satisfied until both the Maine House and Senate are made up of 100 percent Democrats.
I hope you enjoy your tax bills in the years to come, because all the R’s were trying to do is cut over spending and pay down the state’s debts. Now the D’s will just spend, spend, spend again like drunken sailors. Enjoy!
I will pay my taxes with the Democrats in power just like I pay them when the Republicans are in power. I have been doing it for almost 50 years and if the good Lord is willing I hope to do it for many more years. Keep peddling your tea party BS . You might just find someone who will listen to you. In fact I understand there are plenty of defeated tea party Republican politicians who will have plenty of time on their hands to listen to you. Good luck.
Yeah, but you’ll pay more under the Socialists!
I guess it’s better than fascism.
I didn’t see a single Socialist on the ballot this Tuesday. I saw Green Independents, Libertarians, Democrats, Republicans, but no Socialists. The Socialist party hasn’t ever done very well on election day.
I don’t know. I have lived in the United States my entire life so I don’t have any experience living under socialism. Have you?
You live in Maine. With democrats back in charge, you will find out soon enough.
And this was your experience the infamous previous 40 years?
So you know that the Governor wants to run the GOP because Webster said so after the a– kicking the party Webster represented just got and the shenanigans he pulled ????
It is really to bad you and others like you could get off the two party band wagon and concentrate on the path this country is being lead on.
“Remould it nearer to the hearts desire”
He’s the gift that keeps on giving!
Perhaps Crazy Charlie will move on to bigger and better things, such as being national chair of the Republican Party. He could do for national Republicans what he did for Maine Republicans in two short years!
Karl Rove should be replaced, maybe by Charlie?
They should work together. They can both fit within the same clown car.
Oh No! There goes all our fun. It’s going to be hard to replace someone of his caliber. On second thought,no it’s not,the Republican party has no shortage of dumba–es.
Well said,michaela1947.
Charlie Summers will be looking for something else to do in a couple of short years — he’s has proven he can’t win elections, so appointments are his only possibility!
Charlie Webster (ha ha) going, now, folks, all we gotta do is wait for when Lepage’s term is up, and then celebrate the demise of the Great Republicans. The war on the poor and sick, the lack of any
direction from this Governor, he just wants to attack the weak, sick, poor, and I sometimes really wonder if he has any followers, he is such a loser.
Wait until you D’s get the tax bills for all the spending that will be coming from DC in the years ahead, and in Maine. You better sign up for food stamps now, because you’re going to need it.
I do not believe I will sign up for anything, I never have, but, it was the Republicans and their pet little WARS, that put us where we are, not the democrats.
of course it was the republicans that raped the maine state housing authority and the maine turnpike authority and have spent the state into debt like no one other before them. right?
Yep-compare all those wars and the associated costs, not only financially but in human lives to the MSHA/MTA money…somehow the two just don’t compare. I realize many teapublicans are wired differently, but some have serious short circuits.
two different animals, one is state and one is federal. can’t you stick to a subject.
Maine state Housing is funded with federal money and does not get one penny from the Maine state general fund.
.
So what subject were you “sticking to”?
Uncle. Uncle. Uncle. Trying to communicate w/the likes of you, top, is an exercise in futility. Please take some reading comprehension courses and try to focus. And while you’re at it, see if you can get your wiring updated.
what do you mean sign up now? i am sure they have them already! that is why they made sure to keep their sugar daddies in to keep the gravy train coming. charlie webster leaving is no big deal, but haven’t heard the D’s say anything about their poster boy, uncle johnny martin? now that is worth ranting about!
One is quitting and the other lost an election. Big difference.
right. one knows when to get out. the other did not. that is what happens to old politicians, they don’t know when their time is up till they get beat and then their ego gets shot.
Webster is a coward running away.
That’s right. The D’s voted for their wallets and more public money. Martin was just icing for anyone who cares.
Been grocery shopping lately? There’s barely a product that you pickup that doesn’t cost five bucks. The prices go up every week and the quantity goes down. Health insurance is crazy expensive. Heating oil and gas through the roof and mortgages upside down. Yet what we got in the guise of government was anti-abortion legislation, voter suppression, legislation that focused on social issues which was generated from outside the state and politicians telling us about their support for small business who greased the ways for big box stores. And you talk about food stamps? This election was a referendum on your mentality for focusing on the WRONG issues.
I didn’t focus on the “wrong” issues. I voted for all the people who worked hard to fix the mess left by Baldacci and 35 years of D rule. I voted to fix taxes and the budget in Maine. The D;s spent most of the outside money this time around bcause of Q1.
Q1 is the perfect example, a social issue turned into a political issue, who we love is no ones business, especially that of government. The Republicans focus state side and nationally has been all these social issues when our infrastructure crumbles around us.
I didn’t mean you personally, I meant the Republican party’s focus. Until the Republicans can separate social/religious issues from issues of state you can expect every election to be just like the last.
Only D’s pay taxes? How much do you get in food stamps?
Ignore him/her, folks. Another troll looking for attention. Buh-bye, Emmie.
Hmmm… is the GOP ship sinking?
Don’t know but the rodents may be leaving.
Just as predicted, too. Their party “loyalty” was obvious when they dissociated themselves from Lepage during their campaigns…but they overlooked the fact that Mainers have good memories.
In an interview right after voting, Charlie claimed that the Republicans lost due to being out spent on negative ads by out of state concerns. No Charlie, the reason the GOP was voted out in the state can be traced to people selecting anybody but an “R” on the ballot to stop the madness of the far right. There are fewer old white men to rely on Charlie. Once the GOP returns to its senses and realizes that there is no winning by pandering to the far right, perhaps the party of my father will be for me once again. Until then, I’m still a middle of the road independent along with many others.
Nah, you’ll just be an old white man.
And you’ll still be single.
Hahahahhaha my husband will be really laughing over that one.
HAHA.R’s threw mud funded by dark money all over the map but it Charlie get splattered NOW money in politics is a bad thing?It sure seemed to be OK when the No on One gang had plenty to spend.The more we get rid of conservatives(old,young,any color or either gender)the better off we will be as a country.
Bring on Brent Tweed. He did an outstanding job as chairman at the convention.
No thanks on that one. If not for the Paulbots the GOP might have won more on Tuesday in the state races.
Keep telling yourself that.
I don’t have to – I was there.
I don’t think that’s true. And the faction that looks at the results, just like after 2008, and says we lost because our guys/gals weren’t nutty right *enough* are completely delusional.
At some point it should become obvious that insulting entire segments of the population is NOT a good way to win elections.
You mean like D’s calling R’s angry old white men? Sure.
If not for Charlie Webster you mean.
No.
“I always liked running for office better than serving,”
That explains not only him but much of the GOTea Party, I guess.
Good I say, too.
After their record in Congress they can run, but be not inconvenienced by winning, serving or having to attend to the government’s business.
It’s truly a win-win.
Or open their mail.
At least Charlie saw the writing on the wall. The whole caucus/convention farce boiled my blood for a long time, though now that things are being put to right, I can begin to relax and hope for the future.
Paulbots ruined the chance for Rs this time around. The convention was proof.
Proof of what? That the establishment hates competition and will bend the rules whatever way they need to ensure there is none?
Webster taking out rightfully elected delegates and replacing them with compliant Romney yes men was shameful, whether one believes in Paul politics or not.
“And it’s so long, been [bad] to know ya …”
Irene good n i i ight ….
Lol
don’t let the door hit you in the… on second thought, let it hit you.
I’m happy that the GOP extremists are out and happy that the governor is muzzled for awhile but we still have to solve real problems and make the best of the situation we have.
The Maine people have spoken and made it clear that they don’t think it’s fair to make the poor and sick scapegoats for poor management of the national economy. We didn’t get this way by being lazy, we got this way because our economy cannot survive with the massive skim being taken by the 1%.
The proof of that is $25 trillion parked offshore, low US investment and high unemployment and welfare. US companies capturing global markets that American’s built but are not getting a return on. People should not be a disposable commodity.
Excellent!
He’s not “muzzled.” Wait until the vetos start happening.
The governor is radioactive. He is the reason the GOP lost both houses so his veto’s will be easy to override.
I see the republican idea of compromising still has its extremist champions. How very patriotic of you to want to see Maine advance.
Too little too late Chuckles. Your party is dead, for years to come, but let me thank you for that.
the tea party fanatics are guaranteeing a democratic majority for decades to come.!
Na, it was the old style repubs who are being outed that created this mess..
Just wait, by the time the liberal/green party get a couple years in, the people will have had enough..
The people ain’t seen nothing yet for spending. Wait a few years with D’s back in power.
The signs saying that Working People Vote Republican is a lie and has helped define a fanatical arrogant right wing that will assure a republican minority for a long time.
True, but we may need to define it in terms even the dumbest of the dumb can grasp, so I’ll let Forest Gump explain: “Stupid is as stupid does.”
CHAHHHlie Webstah. Oil burner repair expert, etc. He did not help broaden the Maine Republican Party’s base in Maine. Instead, he helped narrow it down to a withered shoot by declaring as traitors socially and ethically conscious Maine Republicans, especially in central and northern Maine, where we need good Republicans the most.
Paulbots lost us this one, not Charlie.
Charlie resigning in the face of the inevitable–your fired!
Charlie made his living from the liberal LIHEAP program. What a hypocrite!
YOUR assistance program is bad…mine is good. See how it works?
“Two days after the [2010] election, the governor’s people called me to say the governor wanted to run the party. I said, ‘That’s not going to happen.’” You created a monster, Mr. Webster! He really is the gift that keeps on giving. Thanks.
You are very welcome. I can not wait for the first vetos.
Charlie’s the blue collar workers, the ones he’s managed to convince the GOP represents their interests must be the few people “you can fool all the time,” as Lincoln said. If it is indeed true, either they didn’t bother to vote Tuesday or they aren’t as true blue as Charlie hoped they’d be. Some might be believers, but more might see him as a shill for the plutocrats and corporatists whose interests are definitely the business of the GOP.
Charlie did his best, and it wasn’t good enough – not this time.
You really give him an awful lot of credit.
Maybe so, but I’ve no reason to add to the abuse he brought on himself. Besides, he’s not been the chief cook in any party I ,might belong to. He is what he is, and that isn’t about to change. I have no idea what lit his particular fire back along, but he seems to thrive on having a crusade of some sort. He’ll pop up in one party fracas or another – it seems he’s never gone for long.
Maybe the voters are “true blue”, and voted D.
Bingo! They probably did. I worked the new voter registration desk in my town and there were lots of working class people who checked the box beside Democratic.
Good!
As a former Democratic Party county chair, I have to admit that the Democrats didn’t win this election, the GOP and the teabillys handed it to us. We still have to come up with policies and programs to help the middle class, reign in Wall St or two years from now the people will vote us out. Do something about the predators who have impoverished all of us ; the oil and commodity speculators who run up the price of gas and heating oil. Do something about all of the outside money that flooded and perverted the election process. Provide “LEADERSHIP,” don’t just react, above all don’t make deals and rush to accommodate insane teabillys. Now let’s all settle in and watch the GOP descend into civil war with the moderates,teabillys , the evangelicals and the libertarians.
I’m a Teaparty Democrat. You are not a democrat. You are a liberal. Liberals are socialist not Democrat.
I’m skeptical. What Democratic Party policies, programs, and philosophies do you support or reject?
Your comment is meaningless except to demonstrate that you do not have a clue what the meaning of socialist is.
No, we’ll watch the socialist D’s fight over the jobs and gravy in Augusta. That’s what will happen now.
Maybe next time they can come up with someone who isn’t obsessed with imaginary demons, like “voter fraud” . . .
There is voter fraud on the liberal end.
You tell yourself that if it helps you sleep.
Prove it.
I suggest you take your proof to the appropriate District Attorney.
*happy dance*
Can we have a Party leader who:
Sees the Big Picture future, and the white Christian Far-Right ain’t it.
Addresses the wants and needs of all groups in our Party without selling out to any one.
Realizes that he/she is the leader of the Maine GOP…not the Utah or Idaho GOP. Maine is fundamentally a shade of blue, with purple tendencies.
Deliberately cultivates candidates who will appeal to the entire Party and most of their district or state…and keeps the ideologue bullies from taking their lunch money.
Someone who looks at Paul LePage and says, “How did we get here? How do we keep this from happening again, especially if we EVER get another chance?”
I don’t know why they find it impossible to take that tiny logic leap and simply emulate Snowe/Collins. They’re Republicans and wildly popular. Just follow that template and you could gain support too! But nope, they want to do the students are committing voter fraud, anti-gay, kiss my butt, liberals are welfare queens, whatever routine — so I guess they get what they deserve.
With a clear mandate to turn our economy around with some new ideas that would be good for Maine over the long haul, they jumped on these issues? Why not push for prayer in school, if you’re looking for a loser-of-an-issue! I was (and am) fully in favor of the Open for Business sign…but the mural? You want to fight about that? They say no more politics as usual, and then carry a swimming pool of water for Nutting right out of the gate?
I’m not even going into how they gave us LePage and refused to do anything about his ridiculous antics.
There! Finally, a voice of reason coming from the GOP, just as in the days when both sides worked together for solutions that would benefit>>>>drum roll>>>>Mainers.
I don’t know where some of these crazies came from, but they clearly do not represent the Maine most of us have always known and loved.
FINALLY ……………………… some GOOD news ……………………………
See that Democratic majority in both branches of Maine legislature, Charlie?
YOU BUILT THAT.
As a registered Republican, I am delighted that he is stepping down, but it was 12 months too late. He should have resigned after the 2011 vote on same-day voter registration.
I heard him on VOM this morning, and his crass, pigheaded attitude is still there 100%. Blaming everyone but himself for the election results, and insulting the Republicans who are coming in to lead the party back from the dysfunction he created.
He claimed he would leave the state, we shall see!
Charlie built the R majority in 2010. It wasn’t Charlie who gave away the store this time around — that was the Paulbots.
How so?
Balderdash!
It was Webster’s dishonesty, his attempts to control the party to the point that the will of the people in that party was discarded, and his self-important and unilateral decisions as to who would succeed and who would fail that is currently burning the party to the ground.
Now this weasel, who instrumented the ruin of his own party by alienating thousands of republican voters with his abominable treatment of the Ron Paul republicans, is blaming the Guv? Charlie and his cronies got exactly what they deserved. LePage, to his credit, at least stood on principle and refused to attend the corrupt GOP convention. Perhaps LePage should begin appointing the democrats he likes and can work with to various state positions so they’ll be in place when he leaves, because Webster ruined the party in Maine.
Hey Maine GOP,
Put another M@$$hole Teacreep at the helm again. I love fish … in a barrel.
Re: “The party should not be run by one person,” Webster said. “It has to be there for everybody. We have moderates, conservatives and libertarians whose interests should be represented.”
Well, that’s something we can agree on!
Charlie’s flawed style of “strong chair, weak committee” is wrong from day 1. That needs to be changed.
I am a little confused about how it is that the man who KNEW that his friend had liberated $30,000 from the GOP Committee treasury and opted to not tell the Committee for more than a year is now making such a statement. I would love to hear his thinking on this issue.
I am also confused about how the man who gave nearly a quarter of a million dollars to Nichi Farnham and decided all on his own to give nothing to Sam Canders who ran in the same district is talking about how “the party should not be run by one person.”
And it would have been nice if Charlie Webster had actually acted on the second part of his statement instead of reaching far and wide to keep things going his way.
If you doubt what I’m saying, think back to his “spam folder” and it’s “accidental” grabbing of straw votes for Waldo County.
Or think about his attempted insertion of new bylaws [written largely by EX-committee members, members who had been voted out months earlier] which he tried to sneak in at what has traditionally been the least attended state committee meeting held in Fort Fairfield.
Or think back to his threat to the state committee that if he was voted out, he was taking candidates with him, leaving blanks in slates across the state.
I have one last thing to say on the topic: GOODBYE, CHARLIE.
..
Re: The Farmington resident said he plans to help recruit Republican
candidates for the Maine House and Senate. Webster did not rule out a
future return to party leadership.
God help us! We need to guard against this!