Mark Eves

Mark Eves
101st Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives
Incumbent
Assumed office December 5, 2012
Preceded by	Robert Nutting
Personal details
Born	(1977-03-16) March 16, 1977 Northern California, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Alma mater	University of Louisville Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary
Website	Government website

Mark W. Eves is an American politician and family therapist from Maine. In 2008, he was elected to the Maine House of Representatives from District 146, North Berwick. He was re-elected in 2010 and 2012 before being chosen as the Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives for the 126th Maine Legislature (2012-2014). From 2010-2012, Eves was the ranking minority member of the Health and Human Services committee.

On June 30, 2014, the Talking Points Memo website claimed that some Maine adherents to the sovereign citizen movement had called for Eves and fellow Democratic Senate President Justin Alfond to be tried, convicted, and executed for treason during meetings with Governor Paul LePage in 2013. LePage denied that such discussions took place, even after learning that audio recordings exist of two men claiming such a discussion took place.

In the November 2014 general election, the Democrats lost control of the Maine Senate and but retained a narrow majority in the Maine House of Representatives. A week later, Eves was re-nominated as House Speaker by his caucus.

Eves was hired by the Good Will-Hinckley School in Fairfield as its President on June 9, 2015. He stated that he would continue to serve the remainder of his term, and has not decided if he will move closer to Fairfield. The school hired Eves despite receiving a letter from Gov. LePage attempting to dissuade them from doing so. LePage called the hiring "unabashed political patronage" as the chairman of Good Will-Hinckley's board once worked in Eves' legislative office, and another board member was once appointed to the Appropriations committee when he served in the Legislature, though both recused themselves from the hiring decision. LePage went on to levy personal criticism of Eves, stating "Although he is employed as a family therapist, I have seen firsthand that his skills in conflict resolution, leadership, negotiation and reconciliation are sadly deficient", along with other similar comments. Eves declined to comment on LePage's criticism of him but stated that he hoped LePage's support for the school would continue.

The school changed its mind on June 24, stating it would begin a new search for a President, fearing state funding would be eliminated due to LePage's opposition to Eves and result in other funding losses. Eves, as well as Republican State Sen. Roger Katz criticized LePage for attacking Eves' personal livelihood and family. Eves filed a civil lawsuit against LePage on July 30, 2015, asserting illegal retaliation and blackmail. Eves has said he and his office will not be involved in any legislative actions against LePage.

Eves has been mentioned as a possible Democratic candidate for Governor of Maine in 2018. He calls such speculation 'surreal'.

Personal

Mark Eves was born in northern California to Arthur Eves, a former military chaplain during World War II and his mother, a school teacher. The Eves family moved to Oregon when he was 3 months old. He is the youngest of 7 children in his family. When he was 5, the Eves family moved again, this time to Italy so that his father could study to become a Montessori teacher. His family later moved to Arizona and later to Louisville, Kentucky, where Eves settled at age 11. He later attended the University of Louisville and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He met his wife, Laura while both were seeking master's degrees in marriage and family therapy at Louisville Presbyterian. The pair settled in North Berwick, Maine around 2002 and have three children.