AUGUSTA (AP) — A nonpartisan investigative news service is launching a free website to help Mainers do research on public officials’ campaigns and activities in government.
The nonprofit Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting provides a variety of sources on elections, campaign finance, lobbying, legislation and government ethics on its website.
The center, which produces investigative stories that appear in Maine newspapers, calls its site “Be Your Own Watchdog.”
Center publisher John Christie says it can help voters, for example, check out the source of candidates’ campaign contributions, whether their votes were connected to lobbying and the sources of their income.
Partial funding for Be Your Own Watchdog was provided by the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation and the Nicholas B. Ottaway Foundation.
The site is located at http://byowd.pinetreewatchdog.org/.
The Times Record Sustaining Sponsor
We believe a community must be informed to thrive. bowdoin.edu
Comments are not available on this story. Read more about why we allow commenting on some stories and not on others.
We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others.
We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion.
You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is also found on our FAQs.
Show less