KENNEBUNK — Money is pouring in to defeat state ballot Question 3, which — if voted through — would replace Maine’s existing corporate owned power utilities with a consumer-owned nonprofit. One Kennebunk firm is getting a piece of the pie, according to reporting from the Bangor Daily News published last week.

Question 3 asks whether voters would like to create a nonprofit, Pine Tree Power Company, that would take over the assets of Central Maine Power (CMP) and Versant, the two main electric utilities in the state. Pine Tree Power would be run by a 13-member board, seven of whom would be directly elected. The seven members would then appoint the six other members to the board.

Campaign finance disclosures that detail spending through the end of September show that Avangrid, the parent company of CMP, has spent $21.3 million to defeat ballot Question 3, and Enmax, the parent company of Versant, has spent $13.4 million. Our Power, the nonprofit supporting the Pine Tree Power campaign, has spent roughly $1 million.

A Kennebunk digital strategy and advertising firm, Digital Turf, has received roughly $344,000 from Maine Affordable Energy, a coalition that opposes the consumer-owned utility, since the start of 2022. Many of the anti-Pine Tree Power advertisements and messages that voters may have seen are from Maine Affordable Energy, which is financed by CMP parent company Avangrid. In the reporting quarter that ended at the end of September, the group brought in over $52,000 from Maine Affordable Energy.

Digital Turf describes itself as “a boutique creative agency, combining the appeal of the local team you want with the impact and experience of a national firm.” The firm doesn’t not explicitly say it is left-leaning, but the campaigns and issues it works on project a progressive image. For example, its website displays digital ads it has created to protect abortion access and advance gender pay equity.

Maine Affordable Energy’s campaign finance disclosure forms group Digital Turf’s work in the category of “professional services (graphic design, legal services, web design)” for the No campaign. The group provides “voter outreach services,” though what exactly that includes is unclear. Maine Affordable Energy has also given much more to other digital firms, such as the California-based strategy and media consulting business Left Hook, which took in roughly $4.5 million during the last reporting quarter to provide “TV/cable ads, production, media buyer costs only.”

Digital Turf did not respond to requests to be interviewed for this story.

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