AUGUSTA -- It does not take long to walk from the Blaine House to former Gov. Paul LePage's listed address in Maine.
You could get a haircut or rent a car while you're at it.
On paper at least, LePage lives in an apartment in the same building as a barber shop that is next to an Enterprise Rent-A-Car location near the Augusta Memorial Circle rotary. Next door is one of Shawn Moody's collision repair shops.
That is not a coincidence. Moody, a LePage ally who ran in the 2018 gubernatorial race and lost to Gov. Janet Mills, has a real estate holding firm that owns the building that includes the apartment LePage put as his address when he registered to vote last April. Then in May, LePage announced his bid to run for Maine's 2nd Congressional District.
Residency discussions have followed Maine's former governor for years: Maine Democrats call him "Florida man." During his 2022 bid to reclaim the Blaine House, the New York Times reported that his wife claimed a property tax break meant for permanent Florida residents while LePage served as governor.
Other 2nd District candidates have also faced residency questions. Democrat Jordan Wood lived in Round Pond in the 1st District, but bought a home in Auburn, closer to his birthplace of Lewiston, after switching last year from the U.S. Senate race to the 2nd District contest. Former U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, the Republican whom Golden unseated, ran out of an Oakland residence to win in 2014 while owning a mansion in the 1st District town of Georgetown.
Would LePage, the pugnacious former governor who has ping-ponged between Maine and Ormond Beach, Florida, since leaving the Blaine House, actually live in this Augusta apartment if he wins November's contest to succeed U.S. Rep. Jared Golden?
It feels unlikely but is hard to say with certainty. LePage, a former Waterville mayor and Lewiston native, and his allies won't confirm where he plans to settle down if he's elected. The federal financial disclosure form he was required to file last year as a House candidate indicated he was paying between $10,000 to $15,000 in rent annually to Moody.
"We are focused on the issues impacting the people in (the) District (and) not where the Governor is going to do his laundry," LePage campaign strategist Brent Littlefield said in a text message.
The U.S. Constitution says House candidates must live in the state -- not necessarily the district -- they represent by the time they are elected. (LePage, 77, clearly meets the age requirement of being at least 25 and would be one of the oldest House freshmen in history if elected this fall.)
Other than Wood, the other Democrats competing in the June primary to take on LePage in the fall are living in their hometowns: State Auditor Matt Dunlap, of Old Town; state Sen. Joe Baldacci, of Bangor; and social worker Paige Loud, of Old Town.
While Republicans are confident LePage will win back the seat after Golden repeatedly beat GOP challengers, recent polling had both Dunlap and Baldacci neck and neck with LePage.
The lack of clarity on where LePage would settle does not seem likely to affect his standing with his base, which is eager to return the 2nd District seat to Republicans.
Golden, a moderate Democrat who opted against seeking reelection, has held the seat since 2018. The geographically vast district in Maine's northern half backed President Donald Trump in each of his three elections.
LePage is no longer listed as a registered voter in Ormond Beach, a city of about 45,000 that lies north of Daytona Beach on Florida's Atlantic coast. But he and his wife still have a home there and have owned homes in Ormond Beach since 2008.
They purchased their current property, described online as a 4-bed, 3-bath home with a backyard pool that is not far from a private golf club, for $360,000 in 2018. A neighbor who lives on their street told the Press Herald they have never met LePage and otherwise described the area as a "lovely place."
LePage said in 2018 that he intended to move to Florida, citing no income tax and lower property taxes. The couple sold their Boothbay home in 2018 for nearly $400,000 after owning it since 2014.
"I'll be a resident of Florida if Janet Mills wins, I can promise you that," LePage told reporters a day before the 2018 election. "I'll also be in Florida if Shawn Moody wins because I am going to retire and go to Florida. I am done with politics. I have done my eight years. It's time for somebody else."
By the following summer, LePage was traveling from Florida to Maine to bartend at McSeagull's Restaurant in Boothbay Harbor, where his wife was a server. In 2020, LePage and his wife moved to the town of Edgecomb near Boothbay; LePage posted a social media photo that July showing that he had replaced his Florida license plates with Maine plates. He then declared his intent to challenge Mills in 2022.
He lost his race to Mills by double digits and then returned to Ormond Beach. But by last year, he got the itch to come back to Maine to run for Congress.
He has used appearances at local events and county caucuses to whip up crowds about fighting alleged fraud, reforming welfare programs and ending "the woke insanity."
He drew laughs when he told a room of Republicans in the town of Lincoln last November that he was "coming out of retirement not because I needed a job" but rather "because my wife kicked me out and said, 'Go get a job.'"
Ormond Beach is in Florida's Volusia County, which went for former President Barack Obama in 2008 before swinging to Republicans since then. The "Notable people" section of Ormond Beach's Wikipedia page lists figures such as Texas Rangers pitcher Jacob deGrom and the late Shirley Chisolm, who was the first Black woman elected to Congress.
Closer to the bottom is a Mainer: "Paul LePage, politician."
Still, LePage does not appear to have been very active with local Republican groups in Ormond Beach while living there.
One official with a grassroots conservative organization in the area said in a phone interview this month she is not too familiar with LePage or his Maine experience and that the group has plenty of candidates it is focused on supporting.
She then had a question for a reporter: "Is he running for office in Florida?"