AUGUSTA, Maine — A group including three current and former lawmakers filed the fourth lawsuit challenging a referendum passed last month by Maine voters that looks to ban foreign electioneering here.
The Wednesday filing in U.S. District Court looks to strike down Question 2, alleging that it violates the First Amendment. Its arguments are similar to those made in lawsuits earlier this week from the state’s two biggest utilities and groups representing media outlets charged with enforcing aspects of the new law.
Question 2 would ban foreign governments and companies at least 5 percent owned by them from influencing candidate or referendum elections in Maine and urge Congress to pass an anti-corruption amendment to the Constitution.
It was endorsed by 86 percent of voters in the November election despite opposition from Gov. Janet Mills, who vetoed the idea as well as a similar 2021 bill on the subject. She cited constitutional concerns, including those made by the Maine Press Association, a newspaper trade group that represents the Bangor Daily News and sister papers.
The new lawsuit came from Bangor lawyer Timothy Woodcock, representing a group of five people including Rep. Jane Pringle, D-Windham, as well as former Republican state Reps. Kenneth Fletcher of Winslow and Bonnie Gould, alleging that the new law infringes on the rights of Maine voters.
It mirrors the lawsuits from Central Maine Power Co. and Versant Power, companies that have foreign ownership and alleged this week that the law violates their right to political speech by effectively barring them from campaigning on their behalf.
Media outlets, represented by the Maine Press Association and the Maine Association of Broadcasters, a TV and radio trade group, oppose a requirement that they establish policies to prevent distributing communications for prohibited entities.
Backers of the referendum struck back at the first three lawsuits earlier this week, with Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, saying the utilities and media groups should be “ashamed of themselves” for opposing the will of the voters.”
