Maine: LePage's promising DMR pick

Gov. Paul LePage's administration has given political reporters plenty of unflattering material of late, from crude outbursts against the NAACP to controversial plans to roll back environmental and consumer protection laws and to perhaps use civil servants for political purposes. His cabinet nominations have been no exception, with one corporate donor scoring leadership of the department that oversees their industry, a developer taking over the Department of Environmental Protection, and the chief hospital lobbyist leading Health and Human Services.

But, as I write in my bimonthly column in Working Waterfront this month, LePage's choice as commissioner of the Department of Marine Resources looks to be a sound one. A fisherman turned high-level diplomat, Norman Olsen has an intriguing set of skills to bring to bear at DMR. I talked to him before his confirmation.