Today, our country has more concentrated wealth and income than at any time since the beginning of the last century. Concentrated wealth and power are antithetical to citizens' rights in a democratic republic. If the 2024 election taught us anything, American democracy, dominated by those with massive personal wealth, is failing to serve the needs of the vast majority of its citizens. And our people know it.
Maine’s Strong Foundations
Despite the record-breaking spending and the gigantically out-sized power of billionaires in the 2024 election, we see reasons to hope. The Maine Clean Elections program remains strong, with most candidates for the Maine legislature choosing to run Clean in 2024. We are also proud that in the second year of Portland’s new Clean Elections program, all 12 candidates for city council ran Clean, making a commitment to their constituents over big-money donors!
In the coming legislature, we are working to shore up funding for the Clean Elections program, including it as a robust option for candidates for Governor in 2026. We are also working to expand Clean Elections to county-level offices like sheriff, district attorney, and county commissioner.
Your support for MCCE powers our advocacy for Clean Elections and a genuinely accountable and representative government!
Determination for a Better Future
The reality is that billionaires' and corporations' power is growing, and we have few tools available to us through the courts to reign it in. With few traditional avenues available for progress at the national level, we have to think ambitiously about other strategies at the local level.
Even in times of fear and despair, we must look to our forerunners in the suffrage and civil rights movements, and as they did, find ways to carve out space to imagine a different future. That is why MCCE is fighting for transparency and laws that peel back the layers of PACs to show who is spending on our elections. Through our Democracy Maine collaboration, we are building an intergenerational organizing cohort, studying fresh ideas like citizen assemblies and proportional representation, and working to revitalize rural civic life.
The story of Maine Citizens for Clean Elections is the story of ordinary people coming together to make lasting changes in their state. Together, we can do it again!