Progressive Democrats are facing questions from both parties over plans for a privately funded staffer, with campaign finance regulators warning part of the job could count as lobbying.
The caucus, a group of seven House members, posted the policy and communications director job in late July after raising $100,000 from undisclosed donors. The salary will run through the 501(c)(3) arm of the progressive Maine People’s Alliance, a novel setup that Bangor Daily News first reported on last month after the caucus posted the job.
Letters between legislative leaders show them wrestling with the arrangement, which challenges the normal State House staff structure. Emails between caucus members and the Maine Ethics Commission show the sides are still negotiating what the new hire can and can’t do under the state’s lobbying disclosure laws.
Senate Minority Leader Trey Stewart, R-Presque Isle, wrote to Democratic legislative leaders last week demanding a panel of legislative leaders meet on the hire, raising questions and saying Mainers “deserve to know who is paying someone to help lawmakers develop and promote public policy” after the Progressive Caucus refused to say who the donors were.
In a response, House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, and Senate President Mattie Daughtry, D-Brunswick, told Stewart they “agree that the questions you raise are important and merit discussion” by leaders.
Both Democrats said they had no role in the hiring process and no knowledge of its funding or planning. The issue will go on the agenda for the council’s next meeting, which has not been scheduled. Fecteau and Daughtry said the timing depends on unrelated hires for top legislative positions.
The fight is the latest chapter in years of tension between Gov. Janet Mills and progressives over issues including tax policy, healthcare, childcare, housing and tribal sovereignty. It also lands as Maine heads into a wide-open 2026 governor’s race, with former House Speaker Hannah Pingree, a former Mills aide, favored to succeed the term-limited Mills against Republican Bobby Charles and independent state Sen. Rick Bennett.
Caucus members have maintained last month that the position would not involve lobbying, saying the hire would help lawmakers with research and messaging on progressive priorities.
Friedmann said the role won’t include lobbying or writing testimony, and that the caucus is “comfortable to go to the council and explain what we’re trying to do.” He argued Republicans seem “nervous” about progressives building organizing capacity to counter what he called the “MAGA” Trump administration agenda on fuel, grocery and housing costs.
“We’ve been very transparent about working with the Ethics Commission to define the responsibilities of this position,” Rep. Gary Friedmann, D-Bar Harbor, the caucus chair, said in an interview Wednesday.
But Ethics Commission Executive Director Jonathan Wayne has pushed back on the caucus’ reading of the law, telling Rep. Daniel Sayre, D-Kennebunk, in an email last month that drafting legislation for the caucus could trigger lobbyist registration requirements depending on how much time the new hire spends on it.
“Achieving clarity on this point is important to us,” Sayre wrote to Wayne. “My colleagues in the Progressive Caucus and I strongly support lobbying transparency and do not wish to leave any room for confusion or have any unwarranted shadow cast over our work.”
Friedmann said he expects the Legislative Council to meet in mid-September, around the same time the caucus hopes to announce its new hire.