Under the Avalanche: Maine’s $200 Million Senate Race
Authored by American Promise and Stand with Maine
No Maine voter needs reminding that our most recent Senate race was the most expensive — and quite possibly the nastiest — in the state’s history. The intense partisanship, negative and divisive attacks belied Maine’s tradition of bucking national fault lines, and of electing independent-minded leaders more free of party bosses or moneyed interests. So how did Maine, a fiercely proud and freethinking state, come to be embroiled in the same partisan warfare which has come to characterize politics in Washington and around the country?
A new report from Maine’s chapter of the national, non-partisan organization, American Promise, seeks to shine a light into some of that $200 million that poured into the avalanche of often misleading, toxic and divisive campaign advertising in the state. With a focus on the largest spenders on both the Republican side and the Democratic side, we seek to offer Mainers clear, fair information about how the money degrades debate, decreases useful information, smothers the voices of voters and of more independent candidates — the opposite of what free speech under the First Amendment is all about.
To read the full Under the Avalanche: Maine’s $200 Million Senate Race report, please visit here: https://americanpromise.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Under-the-Avalanche.pdf
