Maine's new governor is stirring controversy once again for comments made in defending his decision not to attend several Martin Luther King Day events. Gov. Paul LePage today told critics to "kiss my butt," and dismissed the NAACP as a "special interest." His position and his remarks have disappointed and dismayed civil rights activists, who are already upset by a recent executive order that allows state officials to question Mainers about their immigrant status.

According to his spokesman, Gov. LePage (left, in file photo) had made an earlier commitment to attend the funeral of a state trooper scheduled for Monday, the Martin Luther King holiday. To mark the King holiday, Dan Demeritt says the governor has signed a proclamation honoring the slain civil rights leader and will bring up Dr. King's legacy in his weekly radio address.

But that may not be enough to appease the NAACP and other civil rights groups for remarks he made at a meeting in Sanford. He told one group of reporters to tell the NAACP to kiss his butt. And when speaking with MPBN's Josie Huang a bit later, he referred to the NAACP as a special interest group that should "get over themselves."

"I am the governor for 1.3 million people. I am not governor for a special interest, for a small group," LePage said. "They are part of Maine. If they want to come talk to me about being a Maine resident, a Maine citizen, they're invited. If they want to come talk to me about race cards, they're not invited."

Josie Huang: "But at the same time you were saying that this is..."

Gov. LePage: "This is nothing but a political race card and tell 'em to get over themselves, I'll send my son, who happens to be a black kid, to talk to 'em."

LePage often refers to 25-year-old Devon Raymond of Jamaica as his "adopted son." And although the governor and his wife are putting Raymond through college, and Raymond has attended LePage family gatherings with the LePage's other children on a regular basis since the age of 17, Raymond has not been formally adopted. He is also not a U.S. citizen.

The governor's critics say bringing Raymond into the conversation is inappropriate. "It's absolute cover for racism. I mean, I pity those children," says Wells Staley Mays, a community organizer with Peace Action Maine who also serves on the executive committee of the Portland chapter of the NAACP. "If you can imagine that the environment at home is anything like the environment that he is expressing politically, I pity those children."

Ralph Carmona, a spokesman for the League of United Latin American Citizens of Maine, known as LULAC, is also offended by the governor's use of Devon Raymond to make a policy statement. And Carmona says LePage is using words and language that are racially explosive and just plain wrong, since both the NAACP and LULAC are both public interest groups.

"I don't get a dime, I don't get any kind of tax loophole in representing LULAC, as an example," Carmona says. "What is he saying, that maybe NAACP shouldn't have been in existence to stop the lynching of African Americans in the south, or is he saying the civil rights laws of this country shouldn't be in existence? Because by making those kinds of comments that's kind of the extrapolation one can walk away with based on what he's saying."

Carmona says LePage should consider the chambers of commerce and other business groups he advocates for in his "red tape audit" meetings the real special interests.

Bangor resident Bob Talbot, a member of both the executive boards of NAACP chapters in Portland and Bangor, had not heard or read the governor's remarks about his organization. But Talbot says he cannot recall any previous governor declining to attend Maine's annual MLK Day breakfast at the NAACP's invitation. "And I just think the governor is missing an opportunity to meet with Mainers of all stripes," Talbot says.

Ben Jealous, (left) president and CEO of the NAACP in Washington, issued a written statement saying,"Governor LePage's decision to inflame racial tension on the eve of the King holiday denigrates his office." And, Jealous says, the governor's remarks put Maine out of touch with the nation's yearning for increased civility.

As the former mayor of Waterville, LePage regularly attended Martin Luther King holiday events in his hometown. But as governor, LePage says he has other priorities.

"Past governors have done what they've done and look at the shape we're in," he says. "I was elected governor to fix the problems and I'm not one that likes the fancy stuff, so take their tradtion and get somebody else to do it. I just don't care about that stuff. I'm there to do a job. I mean, they're just playing silly games I don't have time for."

Civil rights activists will take to the streets on Monday afternoon in Portland to commemorate Martin Luther King Day with a rally and march against Gov. LePage's executive order on immigration.