Turning LePage: Jeb Bush Fundraises For Tea Party Governor in Maine

The Kennebunkport fundraiser falls two days before the Bush family’s annual Fourth of July gathering at President George H. W. Bush’s compound Walker’s Point.

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Charles Dharapak/ ASSOCIATED PRESS

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and his wife Columba in Dallas, Thursday, April 25, 2013.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is combining some family holiday fun with a Tuesday fundraiser for Maine’s Tea Party-backed Gov. Paul LePage.

The Kennebunkport fundraiser falls two days before the Bush family’s annual Fourth of July gathering at President George H. W. Bush’s compound Walker’s Point. Sen. Olympia Snowe and Sen. Susan Collins are listed as hosts for the event.

LePage is best known nationally for comparing Obamacare to Hitler’s Gestapo and telling the Portland NAACP branch to “kiss my butt.”

“What I am trying to say is the Holocaust was a horrific crime against humanity and, frankly, I would never want to see that repeated. Maybe the IRS is not quite as bad — yet,” he said last year, adding, “They’re headed in that direction.”

LePage ultimately apologized for the remarks after Democrats and the Anti-Defamation League sharply criticized his comments. Last month in the midst of a budget squabble with the legislature he said regarding State Sen.Troy Jackson, “Sen. Jackson claims to be for the people but he’s the first one to give it to the people without providing Vaseline.”

The fundraiser is raising money for LePage’s reelection campaign, but the governor said last week he may decide against seeking another term. It is also an opportunity for Bush, a potential 2016 presidential contender and decidedly more moderate than LePage, to make inroads with more conservative elements of his party.