💰 Maine Democrats still have no plan for an FTX executive's big donation.
◉ Political giving linked to the collapsed crypto firm came under heavy scrutiny even before CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested on federal charges alleging that he defrauded investors and violated campaign finance law. Others in the company were charged federally as well.
◉ The Maine Democratic Party got $100,000 in August from Nishad Singh, the company's director of engineering, while Bankman-Fried gave Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, more than $17,000 last year. Singh has not been charged and has remained out of the public eye of late but reportedly knew that the company was misusing public funds.
◉ Collins and other colleagues have said they will donate the Bankman-Fried money to charity. The situation is more complicated for state Democrats, since they spent the money during the 2022 campaign. A spokesperson said the party is monitoring court cases.
◉ "I need a lot more information," said Bev Uhlenhake, the state party's vice chair and a candidate for chair in next month's committee election. "What I will say is that we will navigate in the most ethical way possible."
📝 Lawmakers, file your bills!
◉ The cloture date — or the deadline for legislators to file non-emergency bills for the upcoming session — is Friday. After that, a panel of legislative leaders must vote to allow the full Legislature to consider proposals.
◉ Maine lawmakers are usually good for 2,000 or so bills at the beginning of a legislative session. We are expecting to see the full list of titles sometime next week, with lawmakers convening in Augusta on Wednesday. |
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