Gov. Paul LePage will deliver his State of the State address Tuesday night to a joint session of the House and Senate at the State House, but the governor says he will not be speaking to lawmakers, but rather to the Maine people.

The speech will be streamed through the Legislature’s website and broadcast by some media organizations, including the BDN via Maine Public, but LePage says his staff also will broadcast on Facebook Live, which is interesting given a recent debate, spurred by Rep. Matt Pouliot, R-Augusta, about whether social media broadcasts from the House floor should be allowed.

That strategy aligns with the governor’s populist narrative that he needs to take his message directly to Maine residents, without it being filtered by media fact-checkers or partisan opponents.

LePage is known for sticking to his core priorities during his State of the State speeches, which dating back to his address in 2012 have included energy costs, welfare reform and education reform. Five years later, LePage is still working on the same issues and he is still trying to divert attention from what the Legislature does or what the media reports.

In 2016, LePage delivered his the State of the State address in writing only, using the document to say the Legislature is full of “socialists” more than a dozen times. All of LePage’s State of the State speeches are posted on his website, which you can see by clicking here.

Lawmakers are used to hearing criticisms from the governor and he delivered more today during a radio appearance on WVOM. He said the Legislature has made itself irrelevant and that the two entities making policy in Maine are the executive branch and Maine people through citizen-initiated referendums.

LePage has made it clear that he will frame many of his thoughts on current state policy issues around doing no harm to senior citizens or the state’s economy, which is a message he has been emphasizing for months.

LePage said he preferred to deliver this year’s speech in writing but his staff convinced him to do it in person. The BDN will stream the speech on our website and have full coverage late today and tomorrow.

— Christopher Cousins, Bangor Daily News