Maine GOP Launches ‘MichaudFacts.com’; Calls on Michaud to Cease False Claims

AUGUSTA — The Maine Republican Party on Wednesday launched a new website, www.michaudfacts.com, that examines the record of Democratic gubernatorial candidate and career politician Michael Michaud. The site delivers research in an entertaining way, including a “Top 10″ list and a “Who Said It?” quiz alongside fact check features and policy briefs.
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“Michaud has been called ‘the least examined public figure in Maine,’ and that must change before Mainers begin voting,” said Maine Republican Party Executive Director Jason Savage. “Maine voters deserve to know what Congressman Michaud has been up to throughout his 34-year political career, and what this site reveals is a combination of unoriginal liberal ideology and a disappointing inability to effect change.”

The new website will be promoted with targeted online advertisements. In addition to MichaudFacts.com, the Maine Republican Party also operates www.notrightforme.com, a site holding Democratic state lawmakers by accountable by highlighting their support for higher taxes and fees, their opposition to welfare reform, and more.

New research featured on MichaudFacts.com includes numerous false statements from Rep. Michaud, including:

• Rep. Michaud has stated falsely on multiple occasions that the unemployment rate in Maine is dropping only because there are fewer people receiving unemployment insurance as a result of Congress declining to pass benefits extensions. However, the number of people receiving unemployment insurance benefits is in absolutely no way a function of the unemployment rate.
• Rep. Michaud also falsely states that the bipartisan tax relief package signed into law by Gov. LePage was enacted “outside the budget cycle,” when in fact the tax cuts took effect Jan. 1, 2013, well within the biennium.
• Rep. Michaud states that the next governor will face a massive deficit because of the 2011 tax cuts. However, Maine finished FY 2014 with a $49 million surplus.
• Rep. Michaud asserts that the Affordable Care Act requires states to establish their own exchanges, when in fact states have a choice. Michaud should know this if, as he claims, he read the entire law.
• Finally, Rep. Michaud continues to lie about Gov. LePage’s position on Social Security and Medicare.
• “Congressman Michaud must immediately cease making these false claims in his stump speeches and in media interviews,” added Savage. “It’s unclear whether he is deliberately misleading Mainers or he simply does not understand the issues, but either way, he must stop making these false claims and the Maine media should hold him accountable.”

Michaud has a pattern of deceptive and inaccurate campaign advertisements, including a 2012 attack ad named one of the campaign cycle’s most misleading, a 2013 web video that had to be taken down and fixed for using false jobs data to attack Gov. LePage, and a recent TV ad that fabricates a newspaper headline and cites Michaud’s own press release as a source.