Lepage insider resigns

Communications Director Dan Demeritt’s resignation today is not unexpected for the under fire, inner-circle member of the Lepage administration. Demeritt was listed as both communications director and legislative affairs staffer.  His resignation followed media reports yesterday in the Portland Press Herald that he faced, “possible foreclosure on five buildings he owns…” (source Portland Press Herald 4/15/11  http://bit.ly/e3751P )

Demeritt was becoming a liability for the Lepage administration  well before yesterday’s revelation. His emails caused concern in January.

“Once we take office, Paul will put 11,000 bureaucrats to work getting Republicans re-elected.” Dirigo Blue wrote: “ But reading through the entire document, it is apparent that the incoming administration was preparing to use – whenever possible – the apparatus of government as a promotional tool. ” (source, Dirigo Blue  1/30/11 http://bit.ly/hFIndu)

It appeared slipshod at best to make those comments in a written forum, brazenly arrogant at worst.  In the weeks leading up to and following, Demerit was prone to answering media questions in ways that befuddled the average Mainer.  When asked about closing state government for bad weather he said: ” “The rule of thumb is: if Marden’s is open, Maine is open,” Demeritt said. (Kennebec Journal  1/17/11   http://bit.ly/e9Nwjq )

As a former communications director for the previous administration, I can empathize with Demeritt  around the difficulties of the job. You are constantly under the microscope and in the public eye.  I am also wondering,  however,  why he chose to take huge risks in both what he said and as we recently learned  how he apparently chose to handle his personal affairs.  In my brief hallway conversations with him he would repeatedly ask why the media was treating him so badly. I believe he was really at a loss about why reporters were not asking the questions he wanted them to ask and why they asked the questions they did.   In my opinion, Dan never transitioned from the short term  rhetoric of  a campaign to the long term communications around governing.

Crystal Canney was a journalist for 20 years and was  communications director for Governor John Baldacci.  She is currently President of Canney Communications,  a Portland based political media and public relations firm.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 16th, 2011 at 10:06 am by Crystal Canney and is filed under Blogs & News Links. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.