A version of this article was originally published in The Daily Brief, our Maine politics newsletter. Sign up here for daily news and insight from politics editor Michael Shepherd.
AUGUSTA, Maine — The tit-for-tat battle between Maine’s biggest electric company and its leading critics escalated on Thursday, when an effort that would blunt a proposed consumer-owned utility qualified for the November 2023 ballot.
It means Maine voters will decide whether to replace Central Maine Power Co. and Versant Power with a consumer-owned utility at the same time as they consider a CMP-backed question that would subject the billions in borrowing needed to fund the new entity to yet another vote.
The specifics: The consumer-owned utility, a longtime brainchild of former Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, qualified for the ballot last November. The rival question, which is backed by a political group almost solely funded by CMP’s parent, was unveiled in 2021 and was the subject of behind-the-scenes dueling by both sides to weaken each other’s questions in drafting.
The one that just qualified for the ballot would subject certain public borrowing over $1 billion to voter approval. This would effectively force another vote on the consumer-owned utility if it passes, since billions would be required to buy out the infrastructure of CMP and Versant.
Follow the money: CMP’s parent has spent heavily already on a dual-tracked campaign to fight the consumer-owned utility, spending nearly $10.5 million through one political committee focused on opposing that referendum and $1 million through another focused on its question.
Our Power, the group leading the consumer-owned utility bid, looks nearly certain to be heavily outspent. It has not fundraised well so far, bringing in only $550,000 through year’s end.
What they’re saying: “Pine Tree Power is an expensive, risky scheme and the more Maine voters know about that, the more they think it’s a bad idea,” said Democratic operative Willy Ritch, who leads the two utility-backed political groups.
His group said last year that it had collected more than 100,000 signatures, but Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ office said Thursday that 68,807 of those submitted were deemed valid, clearing the state’s threshold to qualify for the ballot by just over 1,100.
“If they waste so much money on such a lousy outcome, no wonder they do such a lousy job running our utility,” Bill Dunn of Yarmouth, who works with Our Power, said in a statement.