LePage won an expected double victory when the Legislature sustained his veto of two bills that would have expanded Medicaid under the auspices of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare. Democrats have made the effort to expand access to publicly funded health insurance to 70,000 Mainers their top priority for two years, and have passed five bills to do so.

LePage has vetoed all five, and GOP lawmakers have stood by his side to sustain each veto. With the issue now dead at least until after this November’s gubernatorial election, one lawmakers said the Medicaid expansion question had finally been put to bed.

“The white whale is dead,” said James Hamper, R-Oxford, the lead senator on the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee.