NORTH BERWICK — Mark Eves is a man of many jobs – and faces, if you agree with his critic-in-chief, Gov. Paul LePage.
When Maine’s Democratic speaker of the House isn’t trying to wrangle 150 lawmakers amid Augusta’s increasingly Washington-esque political environment, Eves is in North Berwick working with his wife to manage a household of three young children – plus 11 chickens, two pigs and two goats.
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“It’s nice to come back to this, walk around the yard and think about nothing,” Eves said while seated on the deck of the family’s modest country home.
“Or everything,” added his wife, Laura.
The latter seems more likely, at least lately.
It was the morning of Thursday, July 2, and Eves was supposed to be starting his second day of a new job as president of Good Will-Hinckley, a Fairfield nonprofit that runs a charter school and other programs for at-risk youth. Eves had landed the $120,000-a-year job because of his “professional credentials and career in psychology and family therapy, as well as his statewide policy and leadership experience as Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives,” according to Good Will-Hinckley’s June 9 announcement.
As anyone who follows Maine politics now knows, however, Eves never started his new gig.
Leaders at the 125-year-old education institution rescinded their offer after LePage – a vocal critic of Eves – threatened to withhold more than $1 million in state funding. An ardent supporter of charter schools, the Republican governor lambasted the Good Will-Hinckley board for hiring a past opponent of charter schools and accused Eves of using (or abusing) his political connections to land the job.
“Tell me why I wouldn’t take (back) the taxpayer money to prevent somebody to go into a school and destroy it?” LePage said to reporters last week. “Because his heart’s not into doing the right thing for Maine people.”
LePage’s depiction of Eves contrasts sharply with the one painted by Senate President Mike Thibodeau, a Republican whose formerly close relationship with the governor splintered over recent months. Thibodeau, of Winterport, had to work closely with Eves to pass a $6.7 billion budget compromise through the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democratic-controlled House – and was excoriated by LePage during the negotiations as well as for the end result.
While he and Eves disagree on many political issues, Thibodeau said he and the House speaker work well together. He described Eves as an honest broker throughout the budget process, adding both men were working toward what they believed were the best interests of Maine, even if they had different visions for getting there.
“If Mark Eves were moving to Waldo County, I would like him to be my next-door neighbor,” Thibodeau said. “He is a nice man. Politically we are very different, but again, he is a nice, honest person.”
After a pause, Thibodeau added: “I’ll put it this way: We could go fishing together.”
Contrast that, yet again, with House Republican leadership’s response when approached for comment as part of this article.
“I have spoken with leadership and some of our caucus members, and we are not interested in taking part in the Eves story,” wrote Rob Poindexter, spokesman for the House Republican caucus, which clashed with Eves as well as with Senate Republicans to include LePage priorities of income tax cuts and welfare reforms in the budget. “Therefore, the House Republicans decline comment for this piece.”
‘HE WAS SPEAKER OF THE ENTIRE HOUSE’
Mainers might as well get used to seeing those two conflicting images of Eves – the caring counselor/political leader versus the political hack/crony.
A legislative committee’s unanimous decision Wednesday to initiate a preliminary investigation into LePage’s intervention in Eves’ job with Good Will-Hinckley means that issue will likely remain in the news periodically for several months. Never one to retreat from a political fight, LePage is proudly acknowledging his role in Eves’ joblessness while questioning the authority of the state’s watchdog agency to even investigate the governor’s office. Meanwhile, the many critics of Maine’s brash and blunt-talking governor are hoping to steer this latest LePage controversy into impeachment proceedings.
Although typically soft-spoken and often described as a “nice person,” Eves didn’t become Maine’s third-highest elected official – reportedly with eyes on the governor’s office – without an oversized helping of political ambition or by rolling over when challenged by a political rival. He successfully held a diverse House Democratic caucus together – a task often described as “herding cats” – during contentious debates and managed to maintain Democratic support for a budget compromise that some liberals argued provided too much tax relief to the wealthy while cutting welfare for asylum seekers.
“The job is very difficult because, as presiding officer, you are the speaker of the entire House,” said David Farmer, a veteran Democratic consultant and staffer who worked with several Democratic House speakers during the administration of Gov. John Baldacci. “While I know there were people who would have liked Mark to have been more aggressive with the governor or with the House (Republican) minority leader, he was speaker of the entire House and had to hold onto that (balancing act) so there is some trust between the parties.”
The governor’s involvement in what Eves regards as his and his family’s personal life amounts to “blackmail” in his eyes and those of his attorney, who is preparing a civil rights lawsuit against LePage.
“I don’t know what else to call it,” Eves said in a recent interview. “It certainly feels like blackmail to me. The governor stepped in the middle, used the power of the governor’s office, used the resources of state taxpayers to get in the way of that.”
MOVED TO MAINE IN 2003
The son of a military chaplain and a schoolteacher, Eves was born in California and moved several times before his large family ultimately landed in Louisville, Kentucky, when he was 11 years old. The Eves family was deeply religious, so the future counselor said it was a logical extension for him to seek a master’s degree in family and marriage therapy at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
That’s also where he met his wife, Laura, who was enrolled in the same degree program. They were married a year later.
The couple moved to Maine in 2003, drawn by the chance to live close to Eves’ parents in York and by the state’s close-knit feel and natural beauty. They settled in North Berwick – a former mill town of 4,500 residents located roughly 10 miles west of Kennebunkport – and their first child, Elaina, arrived in 2005 followed by Lucas and Naomi, all born about two years apart.
The family now lives in a modest wood-sided home on 20 acres about four miles from downtown North Berwick. Not quite “off the grid” but decidedly rural, the family homestead is also home to a growing herd of livestock. As their father spoke, 8-year-old Lucas and 5-year-old Naomi brought two of the chickens – Regina and Anna – as well as Sprinkles and Flint, the family’s Oberhasli goats, onto the deck to join the rest of the family, which included Eves’ parents.
“We decided this was the place we wanted to move to be close to family and to start raising our own family,” Eves said.
TRAINING, EXPERIENCE ‘CERTAINLY HELPED’
Eves spent more than 15 years working as a counselor and a therapist for both families and individuals, as well as an administrator at several behavioral health organizations. His resume includes stints at larger organizations – such as Sweetser and Woodfords Family Services – and in private practice as a therapist, although he has since allowed his license to lapse.
The House speaker said those experiences shaped both his priorities as a lawmaker and his approach to legislating.
“The training that I received as a family therapist certainly has come in handy with things like conflict resolution, with trying to seek common ground,” Eves said. “And with the intensity that individuals in counseling can bring, and also the intensity of lawmakers in the beliefs that they have and the positions they take, I think that the training that I received has certainly helped. Beyond that, I think demeanor and personality are really important as well.”
Once again, LePage paints a much different picture of Eves.
“Although he is employed as a family therapist, I have seen firsthand that his skills in conflict resolution, leadership, negotiation and reconciliation are sadly deficient,” LePage wrote in his first letter, dated June 8, to board members at Good Will-Hinckley opposing Eves’ potential hiring as president. “While Speaker Eves is eager to state publicly that he and I have a good relationship, it is simply not true. He has not been an honest broker with me on issues that are of great important (sic) to the people of Maine.”
And those have been among LePage’s softer depictions of the state’s third-highest elected official.
In May, LePage said during a news conference that Eves “should go back to where he was born” and has portrayed him and other Democratic leaders as children.
“Mark Eves is a crony. Mark Eves is a hack. Mark Eves was gonna take a soft landing at Good Will-Hinckley,” LePage told WGME-TV last week.
‘ONE OF THE MOST HONEST PEOPLE’
The mother of one of Eves’ former clients said she was “very disappointed” to see the governor deal with someone she describes as “one of the most honest people I have met.”
Laurie Demers’ family had been through numerous programs both in the schools and through the state seeking help for her then 12- or 13-year-old son, Greg, who battled severe behavioral and mental health problems. Demers connected with Eves while he was working as a clinician for Sweetser, and she said her son and Eves instantly connected. After about a year of working with Greg, Eves connected the Demerses with other people who could continue helping Greg.
Demers called Eves “the saving grace in a very difficult time.”
“He was probably the one that kept my son alive,” Demers said. “Without his help, I’m not sure we would have gotten there.”
QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE JOB
As president of Good Will-Hinckley, Eves would have headed an organization that runs one of the state’s six charter schools, the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences, as well as the Glenn Stratton Learning Center, the L.C. Bates Museum, the College Step-up Program and the Carnegie Library. Good Will-Hinckley originally opened as a farm, school and home for needy boys in 1889 and offers numerous educational and social services programs to help at-risk youth. The charter school also has its own principal.
As with today’s university presidents, the heads of nonprofit organizations are typically expected to assist – if not lead – fundraising efforts.
In his cover letter for the Good Will-Hinckley job, which was supplied to the Maine Sunday Telegram by the speaker’s legislative office, Eves argued that his clinical, administrative, political experience – including his fundraising skills – as well as his commitment to the institution’s mission for at-risk youth would serve him well as president.
“I have spent most of my career outside of the Legislature working in the field of behavioral health, both as a clinician and as part of an administrative team,” Eves wrote. “I have experience working in multiple educational settings including public schools and day treatment programs. I am extremely passionate about establishing structures and systems that support children facing significant barriers in their lives to thrive and succeed. My integrity, strong leadership skills, extensive fundraising experience, and effective communication skills make me an excellent candidate for this position.”
Since Eves’ appointment as president and subsequent loss of the job, LePage and Republican operatives have worked hard to discredit his qualifications for the job.
Steve Robinson, former editor of and current contributor to the conservative Maine Wire operated through the Maine Heritage Policy Center, compiled “resumes” of Eves, the institution’s previous president and the current interim president and highlighted the “education-related experience” of each person under the headline “One of these resumes is not like the others …” While former President Glenn Cummings (himself a former Democratic House speaker) and interim President Rich Abramson had multiple jobs in education administration, Eves did not have any.
LePage has focused most of his criticisms on Eves’ opposition to charter schools and the “back-room deal” that led to his hiring.
“To provide half-a-million dollars in taxpayer funding to a charter school that would be headed by Maine’s most vehement anti-charter-school politician is not only the height of hypocrisy, it is absolutely unacceptable,” LePage said on June 25.
Seated outside his North Berwick home, Eves said he applied for the job because he was looking forward to the next chapter of his life after he is termed out of the Legislature next year.
“The mission and values of Good Will-Hinckley are very consistent with the values which led me into the profession, led me to run for the Legislature and run for speaker,” Eves said. Regarding his historic opposition to or criticism of charter schools, Eves said the issue came up during his interviews for the job. But he noted that the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences is one part of the nonprofit and that his primary objection to charter schools has been the “siphoning off” of funding from local public schools.
“Good Will-Hinckley is very distinct and different,” Eves said. “They have a long history of helping these at-risk kids. They have been a safe haven for these kids. The charter school is one component of a lot of programming that they offer … and for me this is not your typical charter school.”
BREAKFAST MEETINGS COME TO AN END
Before the current animosity, LePage and Eves had tried to rebuild a more productive – if not necessarily cordial – working relationship after LePage won re-election last November. The governor has argued that his capture of 48 percent of the vote in a three-way race gave him a mandate on issues such as tax cuts and welfare reform. Yet to accomplish anything legislatively, LePage would need to get it through a House with a strong Democratic majority.
The two met for breakfast once a month at the Blaine House to discuss policy issues for several months. Two events appear to have put an end to the morning-coffee conversations between the two leaders, however.
First, Democrats released their own comprehensive budget plan in a clear signal they would not support key aspects of LePage’s tax reform proposal, most notably tax breaks for wealthy Mainers and the eventual elimination of the income tax. Then, Democrats infuriated LePage by delaying – if only for one week – a vote on his latest pick for the Maine Public Utilities Commission.
Singling out Eves and other Democratic leaders, LePage called the delays “repugnant” and suggested the PUC was the last in a long list of issues in which Eves has stonewalled the governor.
“Every single time that we have breakfast, I ask him some questions and he says that he’ll get back to me. And folks, he has never one time gotten back to me,” LePage told reporters in a fiery May 29 news conference.
Back in rural North Berwick last week, Eves seemed skeptical that the two could repair that relationship after the Good Will-Hinckley affair.
“From my perspective, it seems difficult to be able to have a productive, working relationship with him with the way things are going right now,” Eves said. “The governor has really alienated himself with Republicans and Democratic legislators. But we’ll take a break for six months and (the Legislature) will be back in January, so we will see where we are then. But unless the governor changes strategies, it is going to be difficult for him to be an effective leader for this state.”
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