You could call Cyrus Hagge one of Portland’s most civically and culturally active citizens.
Or you could say he really likes going to meetings.
Hagge, a developer and property manager in Portland, has served on the boards of the Space Gallery; the Portland Downtown District; an outdoor education program for children and teens called Rippleffect; the Portland Rotary Club; Casco Bay Lines; Portland’s Planning Board, as well as its Waterfront Development and Master Planning Committee; the Cumberland County YMCA; the University of Southern Maine Foundation; the West End Neighborhood Association; and the Chebeague-Cousins Transportation Resolution Team.
Hagge is not content to spend his time and resources only on civic and cultural works. He’s also a big player when it comes to Democratic politics in Maine. In the current election cycle, he’s given $112,650, almost all of it to Maine Democrats and the state’s Democratic Party.
His reason?
“Until the rules for political donations are changed, I will help to support the Maine Democratic Party from the onslaught of Republican out-of-state money,” wrote Hagge in an email to the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting. The “Citizens United ruling has made the need to raise money for the Maine Democratic Party a necessity. I hope that through these donations, the Maine Democratic Party can regain control of the Maine state government.”
Hagge gave $20,000 each to the Maine Democratic State Committee, the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee, and the House Democratic Campaign Committee. He’s also given $13,500 to the Alfond Business, Community and Democracy PAC, run by fellow Portland resident and Senate President Justin Alfond, a Democrat.
Democratic candidates have benefited from Hagge’s largesse: Shenna Bellows’ U. S. Senate campaign and Chellie Pingree’s U. S. House campaign have each received $5,200 from him, while Emily Cain’s House campaign got $4,500 and Michael Michaud’s gubernatorial campaign pulled in $3,000.
And Hagge, who is also an “advisory trustee” for Maine Audubon, burnished his environmental bona fides this election cycle by giving $10,000 to the Maine Conservation Voters Action Fund, a PAC dedicated to electing candidates friendly to the environment.
The PAC received much of its funding from the national organization of which it is an affiliate, the League of Conservation Voters, as well as from Donald Sussman, the Democratic donor, who gave it $100,000. So far, this election cycle the PAC has spent almost $1.3 million in its efforts to elect environmentally friendly candidates, to turn Gov. Paul LePage out of office and elect Mike Michaud.
