Is the Tea Party outraged? NO

Governor adds pricey consultant to political staff

*Taxpayers get suspicious when they hear the words no-bid contract because, well, that’s not the way government normally works.

*Failing to seek bids invariably means paying top dollar for the work to be done.

*He (LePage) has hired a controversial Rhode Island Republican consultant to study our MaineCare system.

*Alexander Associates landed that $925,000 no-bid contract, about half of which must be completed within the next month.

*How can such a small firm, with only one similar study under its belt, complete such an analysis in four weeks?

It's easy.  The outcome has been predetermined.

Why is LePage spending money the state does not have?

*to help make sure Republicans don’t join Democrats in approving an extension of MaineCare in the next legislative session.

*to provide new charts, graphs and reference points for his re-election campaign showing that lazy poor people are to blame for the state’s financial problems.

*to provide a legislative agenda to further dismantle MaineCare in the 2015 legislative session if he should win re-election in November 2014.

*In effect, Gary Alexander is a $925,000 addition to the governor’s political team.

Paid for by the taxpayers of Maine.  Tea Party types, if they were consistent, should be outraged.

Read the entire OP/Ed here.

** A document obtained from Republican Gov. Paul LePage's office shows members of his staff, in fact, authorized the expense.

** LePage's staff also signed off on a $179,000 increase to the original cost of the contract awarded to the Alexander Group, bringing its total cost to $925,200.

** A copy of the purchase authorization document along with attached email messages among LePage staffers and officials within the Department of Administration and Financial Affairs and DHHS, show the governor's office was advised of and did, in fact, approve the nearly $1 million purchase.

** Jonathan Nass, LePage's senior policy analyst; Holly Lusk, the governor's senior health policy adviser; and Sam Adolphsen, who was serving as director of strategic development for DHHS, exchanged multiple communications on the contract.

** LePage's communication staff also said Wednesday and again Thursday there were no written communications between DHHS and the governor's office regarding the contract. [Ahh...e-mail counts, idiots.    ]

** LePage did meet with Alexander in March, before the contract was issued, and again in October after it had been signed.

** $193,680 of the ($925,200) funding is federal money, including $69,120 that is being diverted from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. [Just in time for Christmas! Way to go gov'na! Get them lazy bastards, especially those good for nuthin' children!  ]

SJ Link

And, by the way, you Tea Partiers can go to hell.

AUGUSTA — Gov. Paul LePage on Thursday defended himself and his administration against accusations of cronyism in hiring Gary Alexander, a controversial consultant, to study and make recommendations for Maine’s welfare system and potential Medicaid expansion.

LePage said he has met with Alexander just three times.

LePage said Thursday that he also has met with Alexander twice since Alexander’s firm was hired on a nearly $1 million sole-source contract awarded by Mayhew in September.

LePage also reiterated that while he admires the work Alexander has done in other states — specifically his success in winning a global Medicaid waiver in Rhode Island — he was not involved in hiring The Alexander Group for Maine’s welfare and Medicaid expansion study.

All sole-source contracts must go through the governor’s office for review, but that step is routinely conducted by policy staff, not the governor himself, said LePage’s spokeswoman Adrienne Bennett.  (The buck doesn't stop at LePage's desk?)

LePage also said that he was not concerned that Alexander had missed a Dec. 1 deadline to file an initial report with DHHS. A draft of that report was received Monday, Dec. 16, according to a DHHS spokesman, and is expected to be completed in early January.

“In business, everybody gets extensions,” he said. (So, we are to cut LePage and Alexander some slack just like the Tea Party is cutting Obama some slack with regard to the ACA? Of course...NOT!)

Alexander was the subject of an audit in Pennsylvania, which said long-term mismanagement of that state’s home health care worker payroll service cost the state $7 million annually. (Sounds like the kind of guy LePage would hire.)

Alexander oversaw a Pennsylvania public welfare department that saw nearly 80,000 children lose taxpayer-funded health care benefits. (Now we know why LePage ADMIRES Alexander! Damn layabout kids!)

SJ Link

I know Tea Partiers will ignore this, but the rest of us level-headed, reasonable people will not.

The message of the past three years at DHHS is simple: Chaos and poor performance are the price to be paid when ideology becomes more important than competency in hiring.

Good Summary - SJ Link