(The Center Square) — Maine voters will have a say in whether foreign corporations should be allowed to spend money on state referendums in an effort to sway the outcome.
The Secretary of State’s office has given a green light to several statewide referendums for the Nov. 7 ballot, including Question 2, an “Act to Prohibit Campaign Spending by Foreign Governments and Promote an Anticorruption Amendment to the United States Constitution.”
The referendum will ask voters: “Do you want to ban foreign governments and entities that they own, control, or influence from making campaign contributions or financing communications for or against candidates or ballot questions?”
Supporters say the ballot question is aimed at eliminating a “loophole” in Maine law that allows foreign governments to spend money on referendum campaigns. Foreign entities can’t contribute to political candidates under both federal and state election laws.
“Fighting the corrupting influence of money in politics is critically important to ensuring that all voters have equal access to the democratic process,” said state Sen. Craig Hickman, D-Kenebec. “Right now, dark money special interest groups are silencing the voices of Maine voters and this initiative help return democracy to the people.”
The effort was initially prompted by Hydro-Quebec’s efforts to promote construction of a 145-mile hydropower transmission line, which the Canadian company wants to develop with Central Maine Power, Maine’s largest utility.
Companies aligned with the project spent millions of dollars on advertising ahead of the 2021 elections in an effort to convince Maine voters not to reject the project.
It was one of the most expensive in Maine history, with both sides spending more than $90 million, about $67 million from foreign entities, according to campaign finance records.
That project was put on hold following a 2021 referendum rejecting the transmission corridor, but a jury in April found developers had a constitutional right to proceed with construction of the power corridor.
Supporters say foreign companies are also spending money on TV and digital ads to sway the state’s voters on another referendum set for the November ballot, which would allow the state to take over two privately owned U.S. power companies with ties to Spain and Canada.
The proposal has taken a long and tangled path to the November ballot, with Democratic Gov. Janet Mills vetoing the proposal twice in the past two years, most recently in July, and the Democratic-controlled Legislature overriding her objections to put the citizens initiative before voters.
The group Protect Maine Elections collected more than 80,000 signatures last year to put the proposed ban on foreign spending before voters and under state law could have gone to the ballot even if lawmakers hadn’t approved the plan.
A recent poll released by supporters showed that at least 82% of main voters support prohibitions on foreign governments from spending money to influence elections.
“It is unconscionable that foreign governments are currently permitted to dump millions of dollars into referendum campaigns, the very tool with which Maine voters can directly affect state law,” state Sen. Rick Bennett, R-Oxford, the group’s chairman, said in a recent statement. “We need to allow Maine people to control Maine elections.”
