2 weeks Ago
Cast your mind back, reader, to a long time ago in a galaxy far, far — well, actually, cast it back to here in Maine in 2020. There was a lot going on, so you’d be forgiven for forgetting, but we had a Senate race that year, Susan Collins vs. Sara Gideon.
I shudder to remember it. The media atmosphere — on the TV, the computer, in the mailbox and newspaper — was so saturated in advertising that every day felt a little bit greasy. I started having dreams that women in blue suits were pursuing me to chip in even $5.
You probably remember how you think that story ended, with Gideon, the former speaker of the Maine House, losing like the Boston Red Sox from 1918-2004 and leaving politics for private life due to term limits. But despite fundraising like her life depended on it, including sending out fundraising texts on Election Day itself, Sara Gideon ended up with $14.5 million in the bank after the votes were counted.
Having some cash left over after an election, for unforeseen legal expenses or staff salaries, is pretty normal for a campaign. But $14.5 million is absolutely hog wild, especially when the campaign in question made use of the labor of unpaid interns , never compensated for the efforts.
(I know because my sister was one of them.) I first wrote about this cash hoard four years ago, in January of 2021. A lot has changed in the past four years, but one thing hasn’t.
I recently checked the Federal Election Commission filings and as of Dec. 31, 2024 (the end of last quarter), the Sara Gideon campaign committee still has $3.7 million in the bank.
It’s being very slowly spent down , as far as I can see, with checks going out to other Democratic politicians and organizations, as well as to various charities, including $250,000 to Planned Parenthood and $10,000 to Maine Equal Justice and the Quality Housing Coalition this last quarter of the year, among others. The frustrating thing is I’m totally in favor of the causes the campaign committee is donating to. I’m sure they need the money and I feel they’re great organizations.
But the whole situation feels icky to me. Like, how is it legal for Gideon to still sit on and access a pile of money that was given to her for one very specific reason? People didn’t donate money to her campaign for charitable donations or to have it funneled to other politicians. They donated it to her specific campaign to be the senator from Maine.
It’s not like she’s much involved in public life these days, as far as I can tell. There’s no explanation as to why she’s kept the money for this long, no word on what her goals are for it. Is it to buy political influence behind the scenes? Make the state a better place through charity? We just don’t know because nobody has spoken about it for years.
I can tell you she hasn’t paid her interns. (Yes, I’m still salty about that.) None of this sits right with me.
This isn’t the worst case of political corruption or general grossness that I’ve ever seen, but it hits close to home. Maine should be better than this. We just passed a referendum to help get dark money out of politics! The good news is, you can request a refund if you remember donating to the campaign back in 2020.
All you have to do is email the campaign treasurer who is on file with the FEC and ask for a refund. I ended up doing this a while ago. (I donated $13.
93 and no, I can’t remember why it ended up being that number.) Raising money is a great skill, one that — properly used — can make the world a better place. But being a good fundraiser doesn’t necessarily make you a good politician, a good lawmaker, or a good person.
There are a lot of reasons people think politics is a game for rich people where the prize is money and the points are also money. To me, this semi-dark pile of money is just a single beat in the drumbeat of corruption and horse apples that the American political campaign system has become. Is it any wonder people don’t have faith in career politicians? We invite you to add your comments.
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