Maine Politics: Evaluating the Money Flood

I have a number of election related pieces about to come out in several venues, and the first is on the legislative races here in my home state of Maine.

After the 2010 elections, I wrote about the unsavory consequences of outside spending in Maine's once fairly chivalrous state senate, house, and gubernatorial races in Down East. This year, the flood of third party spending into our legislative races more than doubled that of 2008, with unknown consequence for Pine Tree State politics.

In tomorrow's Maine Sunday Telegram I explore the issue, speaking with campaign finance experts, candidates who'd won and lost in targeted races, and other sources about what it all means. Did it work? What's it mean for clean elections candidates? Who outspent whom and why might they be involved? It's all in the piece, now up online.