UPDATE: Apparently the governor has been asking himself this very same question:

“I’m considering running for Mike Michaud’s seat if you want to know the truth because it can’t be any worse in Washington than it is here,” LePage said. “Everything’s on the table. Retirement, Social Security, running for Congress, maybe going back to Marden’s to stock shelves, who knows. I don’t take myself as seriously as all you do.”

Original post:

Maine’s obstreperous governor Paul LePage is running for reelection. I’m not totally sure why, and in his more honest moments of solitude I suspect he wonders that same thing himself.

The governor’s calamitous press event yesterday attracted national attention when he called a Democratic legislator from Aroostook County “the first to give it to the people of Maine, without providing Vaseline.” This hilarious anal rape joke failed to resonate with the national audience, most of whom are not twelve-year olds.

Amazingly, this was only part of a muddy stream of offensive and ill-considered language, which included direct insults against those who work in forestry — an industry that employs about 20,000 Mainers (PDF), according to the North East State Foresters Association. Here’s the quote:

People like Troy Jackson, they ought to go back into the woods and cut trees and let someone with a brain come down here and do some good work.

Taken as a whole, the disjointed, rage-filled press event was somewhat unintelligible. But I think the overarching message was clear: Paul LePage is deeply unhappy in his job.

So why is he running for reelection?

Is it the power? This is a man who was forced to remove a flat screen TV from the lobby outside his office, and who is poised to have his budget veto overridden by the legislature. Doesn’t seem he’s exactly ruling with an iron fist these days.

To the outside observer, it certainly doesn’t look like his heart is in it. Just look at his poor campaign website. It’s the internet equivalent of a puppy left out in the rain.