A Republican lawmaker, who came under fire earlier this month for sending an email to an Asian American woman calling COVID-19 the ‘China virus,’ attempted to remove the word “racial” from a legislative panel set up to address racial disparities.
Freshman state Rep. Michael Lemelin, a Republican from Chelsea, is a member of the legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee. During a work session earlier this month, Lemelin caused confusion among his colleagues on the committee when he made a muddled attempt to change the purview of the Permanent Commission on the Status of Racial, Indigenous and Maine Tribal Populations.
The panel, signed into law in 2019, is tasked with understanding where and how the state’s existing policies exclude or reinforce the economic disparities seen in communities of color, including Indigenous and new immigrant populations, and then advocate for policies that center those communities.
On April 13, the committee was considering a resolution proposed by state Sen. Anne Carney (D-Cape Elizabeth) that would direct the permanent commission to study racial disparities in access to prenatal care in Maine.
Lemelin spoke up in opposition to the resolution — titled, “Resolve, To Direct the Permanent Commission on the Status of Racial, Indigenous and Maine Tribal Populations To Study and Propose Solutions to Disparities in Access to Prenatal Care in the State”— saying he objected to the resolution’s reference to race. He said if Democrats on the committee removed those references, he and the committee’s other Republican in attendance, state Rep. Abigail Griffin of Levant, would vote for it.
“If [Democrats] were willing to change it to, ‘Resolve, To Direct the Permanent Commission on Indigenous and Maine Tribal Populations To Study and Propose Solutions to Disparities in Access to Prenatal Care in the State,’ we would be inclined to move forward with it,” Lemelin said.
Lemelin, in attempting to edit the word “racial” out of the title of the resolution, was unknowingly asking to change the name of the permanent commission itself. But this was not immediately obvious to the committee members.
“Okay … Which line are you on in the bill?” asked state Sen. Ned Claxton (D-Androscoggin), the Senate chair of the Health and Human Services Committee. “I want to make sure I understand exactly what your thought is here … You want to strike out ‘racial’?”
A committee aide put the language of the resolution up on screen. After repeated attempts to get Lemelin to clarify the change he wanted, Claxton remained confused. He appealed to other members of the committee. “You want to eliminate… Can somebody help me out here, I’m having a brain cramp?”
Several committee members shook their heads, apparently unable to interpret Lemelin’s proposed amendment. Committee aide Erin Dooling from the Office of Policy and Legal Analysis figured it out and jumped in.
“If I may, the [words you’d like to strike] references the actual title of the permanent commission as it is authorized in statute,” Dooling told Lemelin.
State Rep. Sam Zager (D-Portland) backed up Dooling. “The commission already exists. It’s been chartered by this legislature. The scope is as defined in the title of the commission.”
The proposed amendment was impossible.
Lemelin then dropped the effort and voted against the resolution, which passed by a party-line vote. He and Griffin then voted for an amended version of the bill that removes all references to race. When drafting their minority report, Lemelin clarified that he wanted the permanent commission to study access to prenatal care for all of Maine. The commission, however, does not have a budget to do so.
Lemelin was elected to represent House District 88 in 2020, after losing in 2018 to current state Sen. Chloe Maxmin (D-Lincoln). He is the business manager of Chiro-Works in Hallowell, where his wife works as a chiropractor.
Lemelin drew headlines in the Maine press on April 12 after it was revealed that the freshman representative called COVID-19 the “China virus” in an email to Windham resident Krista Gerrity. Gerrity, who is Asian American, had reached out to Lemelin after seeing his signature on a letter calling on state officials to ease restrictions on Maine schools.
“I was like, ‘Wait, what? Am I reading this right?’” Gerrity told the Portland Press Herald. “Oh my goodness.”
Top photo: Republican Rep. Michael Lemelin poses with former Gov. Paul LePage in a photo posted to his Facebook page last year.
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