AUGUSTA, Maine — After Gov. Janet Mills vetoed a bill in 2021 aiming to replace Maine’s two largest investor-owned utilities with one overseen by an elected board, then-Rep. Charlotte Warren joined an unsuccessful effort to override the veto.
The next year, Warren disclosed to ethics regulators that her political consulting firm was working for a group that has since gotten hundreds of thousands of dollars from Central Maine Power Co.’s political arm to oppose Question 3 on Maine’s ballot, a referendum launched in response to the veto.
After switching sides on the issue, Warren, a Democrat who previously served as mayor of Hallowell and left the Legislature last year, has been a public face of CMP’s campaign, doing forums and other speaking engagements against the utility takeover.
“I know a lot about how politics works, and the idea of having politicians run our grid scares me,” Warren said during a Facebook Live event in September, referring to the seven-member elected board that would oversee the utility along with six appointed experts. “It is very risky.”
It is unclear how much Warren is being paid because her salary would be lumped in with larger expenses on campaign filings. She is only one of a handful of former officeholders involved in the campaign in an example of CMP and Versant’s deep pockets and their expansive influence across Maine’s political spectrum.
Political groups funded by the utilities and their parents have spent 30 times more than Our Power, the group pushing the referendum, through the end of September. Overall, CMP and Versant have injected $35 million into their campaign versus roughly $1 million by Our Power.
Supporters often say it will give Mainers more control over the existing investor-owned system in which CMP and Versant both have foreign-owned parent companies. Opponents argue that the buyout would be too costly, create a politicized board and not result in major changes. A ratepayer watchdog has noted major uncertainties, including expected litigation, including expected litigation over the referendum that could take five to 10 years to resolve.
An array of political veterans from both major parties have stepped in to oppose the initiative on behalf of the utilities, while lawmakers have mostly volunteered to support Pine Tree Power.
Warren’s client, Digital Turf, a Kennebunk-based online ad firm, received more than $344,000 from Maine Affordable Energy, CMP’s main political group, from the start of 2022 to September, per the latest campaign finance data. The former lawmaker referred a request for comment to Willy Ritch, who runs CMP’s group and is a former spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from Maine’s 1st District. Ritch declined comment, pointing to disclosures.
In March, Maine Energy Progress, Versant’s political group, hired former state Sen. Tom Saviello of Wilton. Notably, he was one of the leaders of the successful 2021 campaign against CMP’s hydropower corridor through western Maine. He has gotten $5,000 per month since March plus mileage and spoke at a recent Kiwanis Club of Lewiston-Auburn meeting.
Saviello, who was a centrist Republican by the time he left the Legislature in 2018 but was previously a Democrat and an independent, said Friday nothing has changed “in regard to the scope of my work” on behalf of Versant since he was hired. In July, he said he only cared about “what I think is the right thing to do” in opposing Pine Tree Power.
One of the highest-powered partisans on CMP’s team is Jim Mitchell, a former Maine Democratic Party chair and nephew of former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, has received $157,500 from Maine Affordable Energy since the start of 2022, per campaign finance data.
Mitchell is also a lobbyist for CMP through his high-powered Augusta firm, supporting a utility which also has Kathleen Newman, who worked for former Republican Gov. Paul LePage, as an in-house lobbyist. CMP’s chief spokesperson is Jon Breed, a former campaign manager for U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from the 2nd District.
Former Sen. Andre Cushing, a Republican, has worked as a Bangor-area realtor and also for Patriot Consulting, which Maine Affordable Energy paid more than $201,000 since 2022. He represented the campaign at an August event in Alfred promoted by York County Republicans.
But the battle for voters seems to be mostly among Democrats. An internal poll that Maine Energy Progress released last month found Republicans were leaning heavily against Question 3 while Democrats were evenly split alongside a high share of undecided voters.
“They largely take [Republicans] for granted then buy some [Democratic] influence to get to a majority,” former Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, who has led the utility takeover fight, said of CMP and Versant.
Berry received $2,000 a month over five months in 2022 to work to support Pine Tree Power. Berry has since volunteered as an Our Power advisor, also appearing at forums and events. The group also paid more than $17,000 to Rep. Grayson Lookner, D-Portland, during signature gathering efforts in 2021 and 2022, according to filings.
Officials who have not served in the Legislature but nonetheless have plenty of political experience have represented the utilities’ positions at Question 3 forums, including former Maine Public Utilities Commission official Barbara Alexander and former Portland mayor and Verrill attorney Jim Cohen. No payments to them are listed in campaign finance records, though Maine Affordable Energy has paid Verrill more than $295,000 since the start of 2022.
The tactics in Maine are “hallmarks” of how investor-owned utilities influence politics nationally, David Pomerantz, executive director of the Energy and Policy Institute, a California-based group that is critical of utilities.
“The use of intermediaries to pay former legislators indicates that utilities may suspect that voters would be angry if they learned about the utilities’ involvement, and they’re probably right about that,” he said.
