For those who have been trying to avoid the noise, the commercials, the mudslinging and everything that comes along with election season, alas, it appears the time to ignore it is over. We have a civic duty to vote, and in fact, early voting has already begun in Maine. Mainers routinely have one of the highest voter participation rates in the country, which, honestly, is a point of pride for our state — we engage in the process! However, do you know the five referendum questions or who the State House candidates are for where you live? If not, or even if so, I’m here to help.

Let’s start by looking at our State House candidates. Several cycles ago, our Bath-Brunswick Regional Chamber started a tradition of recording one-on-one Zoom interviews with candidates who represent the 16 communities in our chamber region. In 2024, that is 20 candidate interviews that we are scheduling, and those are all happening this very week.

Honestly, it’s a busy week, but it’s a fun week, where I get to hear about these candidates in their own words. The interviews are intentionally unsophisticated, as we want to get out a video that is eight to 15 minutes and helps you take away at least two to three priorities about each candidate. It’s a very simple concept but very effective.

Once candidates approve their videos, we will release them on the Bath-Brunswick Regional Chamber YouTube channel, with a post on the Bath-Brunswick Regional Chamber Facebook page. We encourage you to watch them and share them with people in your district. Please note: We will not release any videos of a race until we have completed the videos for every candidate in that race, to be fair to all. Additionally, all candidates are offered the opportunity, but if they choose to turn it down, that does not prevent us from sharing the video of a candidate who did want to record a video for that seat.

I would expect all videos to be released by early next week at the latest. Keep an eye on the BBRC Facebook page for the videos. The candidates we have invited to interview are from the following districts: Senate Districts 24 and 25, plus House Districts 49, 50, 51, 52, 98, 99, 100 and 101.

Now onto the five statewide ballot questions (honestly, did you know there were five ballot questions?).

Nonsequentially and quickly, let’s deal with the three bonding questions first. This year’s bonding requests are relatively small compared to many previous bond requests, as Questions 2, 3 and 4 ask for $65 million combined, when the average bond request since 2007 has been just over $39 million per request.

The other reason to rush the discussion on bonds is because they overwhelmingly pass. In fact, according to ballotpedia.com, 41 of 42 bond questions in Maine passed between 2007 and 2023 (and they usually pass around 70% to 30%). Question 2 is a bond for $25 million for innovation in technology; Question 3 is a bond for $10 million for restoration of community buildings; Question 4 is a bond for $30 million for the development and maintenance of outdoor trails. Some voters are against bonding as a practice, but these bonds are widely expected to pass.

Question 5 is the much-discussed change of the Maine state flag.

If passed, the new flag would be an interpretation of the Maine state flag from 1901-1909, which depicted a green eastern white pine tree with a blue north star on a tan flag. The design, selected from over 400 submissions, was created by Gardiner-based artist Adam Lemire. If the vote comes back as no, then there is every expectation that Maine will continue with the royal blue flag with the farmer, sailor and state seal that has been used for the last 115 years.

Question 1 aims to limit the amount of money individuals and entities can make to super PACs.

For this question, you need to know the difference between PACs (Political Action Committees, which specifically give limited money directly to a candidate or party) and super PACs (which cannot give funds to a candidate or party directly but have unlimited amounts they can spend on behalf of a politician or party indirectly). This question deals with the second one.

I believe Yes on 1 will win because there is no formed opposition against Question 1, but I’m not sure what that will do practically. To be honest, the U.S. Supreme Court heard Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission in 2010 and voted in favor of giving unions, corporations and any “associations of citizens” the right to donate unlimited funds to super PACs (you may have heard this referred to as “when the Supreme Court said that corporations are people”).

Regardless of whether people think that ruling is correct, I’m not seeing how Maine trying to limit these contributions will be seen by the Supreme Court, which has already ruled on this. Perhaps the goal is to get the Supreme Court to reconsider that decision and overturn its precedent, but that seems unlikely. I don’t know for sure, of course, but if this passes, I wouldn’t expect any changes in the near future.

Now, whether this is a good limitation to make is another conversation entirely, as a reasonable case can be made that there will always be more opponents to a new proposal than proponents, so why is limiting the proponents a good thing? Sure, everyone can think of a scenario they don’t like where this would be effective, but look at where it could be harmful. If a clean air/clean water entity had a great proposal, why would you want to limit them to $5,000 when every polluter also would get $5,000 to spend, and there are more polluters than clear air advocates? I question the wisdom of this decision.

Regardless, without an organized opposition, it’s a moot point as Yes on 1 is likely to win. I just don’t think it changes anything.

Cory King is executive director of the Bath-Brunswick Regional Chamber of Commerce.