OLD TOWN — A Democrat running in Tuesday’s primary for the 2nd Congressional District is raising questions about whether his potential fall opponent — a former governor — is fully committed to Maine.
State Auditor Matt Dunlap, who is running against three others for the nomination, presented reporters with property tax records Thursday showing that former Republican Gov. Paul LePage has been a resident of Florida for the last several years.
“Maine voters are entitled to a representative whose feet are actually on the ground here,” Dunlap said. “Whose property taxes pay for our schools, our roads, our first responders, whose home, actual home, the place he goes when the cameras are off, is in the state he’s asking to represent.”
The documents show LePage’s wife Ann claimed Florida’s homestead exemption from 2018-2025 for a house in Ormand Beach. That ended this year when Ann LePage filed paperwork alerting Florida officials of their Maine residence.
LePage, who served two terms as governor from 2011-2019, lived in Florida after his time as governor, but came back in 2022 to challenge Gov. Janet Mills. He lost that race and according to the tax records, moved back to Florida until sometime last year.
LePage, a Lewiston native who served as a Marden’s executive and mayor of Waterville before his time as governor, announced his candidacy for the 2nd Congressional District on social media on May 5, 2025.
It was then that he reestablished residency in Maine and he and his wife have always spent summers here, campaign officials say. Longtime LePage advisor Brent Littlefield called Dunlap’s Thursday press conference “a stunt.”
“Liberal activist Matt Dunlap is so desperate for attention on the eve of his primary that he is falsely attacking Governor LePage,” Littlefield wrote. “Paul and Ann are Mainers, are Maine residents, and did a phenomenal job as Governor and First Lady improving Maine’s economy and lifting up Maine Veterans.”
Littlefield also pointed out that after the Lewiston mass shooting that killed 18 people in October 2023, the LePage’s raised money for victims’ families.
“It was Paul and Ann LePage who raised over $500,000 for the Lewiston shooting victims at the same time he claims they were in Florida,” Littlefield wrote. “Where was Matt Dunlap, how much money did he raise for victims?”
Dunlap said he’s lived all of his 61 years in the 2nd District and a poster on display behind him described LePage’s current Augusta address — an apartment above a barber shop — as a “flop home.”
Dunlap said he isn’t claiming that LePage is ineligible to run for Congress, but said voters should know whether he is committed to the state and intends to live here fulltime.
Paul and Ann LePage own land in Washington County along with their adult children, according to a campaign staffer, which means they continue to pay property taxes in the state.
Dunlap faces three others in Tuesday’s primary: state Sen. Joe Baldacci, former congressional staffer Jordan Wood and social worker Paige Loud.
A recent University of New Hampshire poll shows a tight race between Baldacci and Wood, with Dunlap in third. But 25% of voters indicated they were undecided, adding a measure of unpredictability in the final days of the race.
While speaking to reporters at his Old Town campaign office, Dunlap said voters are frustrated with high costs and struggles with health care and want political leaders who are invested in them.
“They want to hear that we’re in it for them, that we’re going to stand with them for the long haul,” Dunlap said.