The Lincoln County News does not endorse candidates. This is our longstanding policy and one we will continue throughout this election cycle.
We want to thank you for the great turnout at the five candidate forums co-hosted by LCN and Boothbay Register. Each location had a sizeable audience and we were fortunate to have 100% participation from all 19 candidates across nine races.
All five of the forums were recorded and can be viewed on our YouTube channel, youtube.com/@lcn_me.
While reporters from the LCN and Register covered each forum, it is impossible to get all of the information from each candidate within a 1,500-word article. We feel that being informed on the positions of the various candidates for state offices is critical to the election process.
That is one of the reasons so much effort is put into these forums and candidate profiles. During this election cycle, we have amassed hundreds of hours of labor, as well as material and venue costs, to bring all these components together.
At the forums, every one of the candidates expressed appreciation for the chance to present their views and speak to their constituents. Candidates spoke on topics of interest the Legislature will likely need to address in the next session. The two candidates for Senate District 13 spoke at two forums as their geographical constituents are spread across nearly all of Lincoln County, as well as Washington and Windsor.
We heard the candidates discuss rising property taxes, challenges for business, energy, housing, health care, and a myriad of other topics.
While some of the topics of conversation are similar to the last election cycle, things at the paper were a bit different on the advertising side as there have been much fewer political ads run.
So far, only two of the candidates who participated in the forums took out advertisements that ran in this paper. This is not and never will be a qualification for being invited to participate in the forums or profiles, but it did make us wonder where the campaign funds are being spent. The candidates must file contribution and expenditure reports, which can be found at mainecampaignfinance.com.
We went through the pages for each of the 19 candidates to see how they are spending their political coffers. The latest available report runs through Sept. 17.
The expenses reported by all candidates total $136,869.62, of which $74,018.24 was reported to be spent in Maine. The balance of $62,851.38 was spent with out-of-state vendors.
Print advertisements in newspapers and magazines totaled just $4,600.68, or 3.36%, of the expenditures as of the Sept. 17 report. By comparison, social media expenditures accounted for more than six times this amount for a total of $28,389.19.
The largest single-expense category was printed campaign materials, such as cards, signs, flyers, etc., which totaled $37,912.86. Of that, a significant portion was spent out of state.
We understand that social media advertising has broad reach and appeal and provides metrics and a way to display a message that print advertising does not; however, one saying that we have heard is “vote with one’s wallet.”
It is unfortunate that collectively our local candidates for state office have voted 6-to-1 in favor of big tech, and spending advertiser dollars with billionaires rather than with local businesses that are actively working to help them spread their message.
