Since the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. FEC opened the door to unlimited campaign spending, corporations and outside groups have increased their election spending nationwide by 900 percent with little to no accountability. In Maine, we’ve witnessed record-shattering Senate, gubernatorial, legislative, and referendum campaigns since 2020, a clear sign that wealthy donors and special interests seek to drown out the voices of everyday Mainers.

The only way we can hope to restore a democracy that works for us is to get big money out of politics.

Maine legislators and citizens alike are taking steps to address the problem of outside spending in state elections. This year, the group Protect Maine Elections gathered over 80,000 signatures from voters to put a question on next year’s ballot to ban spending on referendum campaigns by corporations with partial foreign ownership, including Versant. Maine is also one of 19 states that publicly supports a constitutional amendment that would overturn Citizens United. The proposed referendum on spending by multinational corporations reaffirms this support.

I urge you to support the ban on foreign-influenced corporate spending in our referendum campaigns as a means of slowing the tide of big money in politics and giving Mainers a stronger voice.