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Anna Kellar is the executive director of the League of Women Voters of Maine and Maine Citizens for Clean Elections.
Maine has transparent and accessible elections, strong voting rights, and the Maine Clean Election Act. We have been a leader in campaign finance reform for over two decades. But money still talks in Augusta.
Maine passed an important money-in-politics reform in 2021, banning corporate contributions to candidate campaigns and leadership PACs. Federal law and 22 other states prohibit corporate contributions to candidates. Maine added its name to this list when it passed its corporate contribution ban in 2021.
But powerful forces in the Maine Legislature are on track to roll back this critical reform. Recently the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee voted to support an amendment to LD 726 that would repeal the corporate contribution ban. Repealing this law would reopen the gates for big corporate money to flow directly to Maine candidates and legislators. After Maine took a pivotal step forward, now it feels like we’re taking a major step back.
More than a third of money raised by legislator-controlled PACs comes from corporate sources, according to a review by Maine Citizens for Clean Elections. The majority of spending in the 2020 election cycle, including referendums, came from corporate sources, including some from foreign-owned companies. The largest contributors, from the energy, healthcare, and pharmaceutical industries, are major players in Augusta.
Between 2014 and 2022, candidates, leadership Political Action Committees (PACs), and caucus PACs received a total of $10.08 million directly from corporations, according to a report by the League of Women Voters of Maine and Maine Citizens for Clean Elections. They received as much as $11.8 million more from PACs that are allowed to accept corporate contributions. All of these entities are run by people elected to office in Augusta or running for office.
This is particularly insidious when corporate money ultimately goes to individual legislators, who may hold powerful positions on committees that regulate those corporate contributors. Mainers deserve representatives that listen to them, not corporate special interests. Corporations often use political contributions to tip the playing field in their favor. That’s not fair, and the corporate contribution ban was written to address this issue. Repealing this ban not only makes little sense, it dismantles the hard work of the previous Legislature that passed it.
Maine’s corporate contribution ban did not stop political parties or caucuses from raising corporate money – only individual legislators. Some of those favoring repeal really like their leadership PACs and raise a lot of corporate money using them. Other legislators who think this bill should be repealed argue that money flows between PACs regardless of a ban, that money finds a way, and corporations will still flood campaigns with their contributions to caucus PACs and party committees. If legislators feel this way, they should consider strengthening the bill, expanding the ban to include banning corporate contributions to caucus PACs and party committees, as well as candidates and leadership PACs.
If these legislators want to limit the influence of corporate interests, get dirty money out of politics, and protect Maine’s elections, then let’s work on something that moves us forward, not backward. If legislators choose to accept LD 726 as amended and repeal the corporate contribution ban, then they choose to send Maine backwards.
Let’s help them make the right choice. Money talks, but voters can speak louder.