When I first arrived in the Legislature back in 2012, campaign finance reform was still the third rail of state politics. No one wanted to touch that topic with a 10-foot pole.
The political establishment on both sides of the aisle benefited from a broken system; a system that favored those with deep pockets, not the average Mainer. There was little incentive to change it. Those with power, wanted to retain that power, regardless of what it took to get there and stay there.
I made it my mission to clean up Augusta and put government on the side of working people; to reduce not just the amount of money in politics, but specifically address where the money was coming from that influenced policy. Holding your own colleagues accountable doesn’t always make you the most popular legislator, but I felt compelled to push for bold action every chance I could. Someone needed to.
After many years of advocacy, I was finally able to break the log jam and usher in a new era of leadership. I was able to introduce and pass into law a ban on lobbyists from contributing to lawmakers, the governor, and candidates for both offices. This ensured lobbyists weren’t using money to gain undue access or influence over lawmakers.
I was also able to pass ethics reform preventing lawmakers from using political action committees as their own personal piggy banks and banned former lawmakers from becoming lobbyists for at least one year after their service. It represented a monumental win for a cleaner, more accountable government, yet there was still more work to be done.
This past legislative session, the Legislature continued the legacy I left behind last year and passed a corporate contribution ban. It was backed by Maine Citizens for Clean Elections.
I’ve seen how corporate entities use political contributions to gain access, influence, and even votes. There is a reason Big Pharma gives you a contribution and it’s not out of the charitable goodness of their heart. They expect something in return. There is a reason telecommunication companies try and give contributions to legislators who serve on the committee that regulates them. This pay-for-play style politics is what people despise about government. It was a giant conflict of interest let alone should have been deemed unethical.
This new ban applies to for-profit companies, partnerships, non-profit organizations, and professional associations. Maine now joins 22 other states and the federal government in banning direct corporate contributions. It also bans contributions from corporations to legislator-led PACs known as Leadership PACs, and for the first-time, places contribution limits on other gifts to those PACs. With more than a third of money raised by legislator-led PACs coming from corporate sources, this ban was long overdue.
This, combined with my ban on lobbyist contributions, represents significant progress in limiting the role money plays in crafting policies that impact our daily lives. While we still have more critical reforms to pass, the needle is being moved in the right direction. This corporate contribution ban takes effect in 2023, after the next round of state and local elections including the Gubernatorial election.
I’m very pleased to report that our local team of lawmakers including Senator Donna Bailey, Rep. Lynn Copeland, Rep. Maggie O’Neil, and Rep. Lori Gramlich all received a 100 percent voting record with Democracy Maine for their votes on election reform including support for the corporate contribution ban. I appreciate their leadership and commitment to the cause.
Justin Chenette is the former state senator for the Saco-OOB area. He is currently a scholarship program director, Maine-Canadian Legislative Advisory commissioner, member of the Maine Right to Know Advisory Committee, mayoral appointee on the Saco Long-Range Planning Committee, and a member of the Saco Main Street Board of Directors. Learn more at www.justinchenette.com.
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