How this works
What's covered
Every candidate on the Secretary of State's final list for the November 3, 2026 general election; every member of the 131st and 132nd Legislatures; the 2026 candidates who ran in June or for other offices; their campaign money (2025 and 2026), Clean Election funding and the outside spending naming them; their financial disclosures; the homes they own in the towns where they live, where the town's records can be read; lobbyists' monthly reports since 2024; and the Legislature's bills and roll calls.
Where it comes from
- Campaign money: the Ethics Commission's campaign finance files, which MapLight (the company that runs its disclosure system) posts several times a week: every 2026 transaction, independent expenditures split by the candidates they name, active candidates and filers, and each candidate's pre-primary report totals. The files start on January 1, 2026, and contributions too small to itemize aren't in them. Clean Election payments match the pre-primary reports for every candidate. Contributors' street addresses, and candidates' emails and phone numbers, aren't published here.
- 2025 money, and cash on hand: the campaigns' own reports to the Commission (the 2025 semiannuals, seed money reports and the 2026 election reports), saved from its disclosure site (the latest covers through December 8, 2026). Their itemized lines dated before 2026 are added to the 2026 files' (the two never overlap); each report's summary gives the campaign's cash on hand, debts and loans, shown as of the latest report. The tables are read by their layout on the page; an amended report replaces the original. Street addresses aren't kept.
- Financial disclosures: the personal financial disclosures candidates and legislators file with the Commission each year (1 MRSA §1016-G), saved from its disclosure site (filed through October 3, 2026): employers and job titles, self-employment and its clients, businesses owned, other sources of income, positions with organizations and political committees, gifts, unsecured loans, sales to state agencies and agencies they represented others before. Maine's form lists sources, not amounts: the law asks for each source of $2,000 or more and each agency sold $10,000 or more. The latest version of each person's latest report is shown. Family members' entries are shown without their names, and emails, phones and street addresses aren't published (an employer or business is shown with its town).
- Lobbying: lobbyists' monthly reports to the Ethics Commission, from its lobbying system's public data: the LDs and issues each lobbyist worked on with the pay attributed to each, spending on officials, and events officials attended. A lobbying year runs from December 1 to November 30 (3 MRSA §312-A). The officials a report names are matched to members of the Legislature by name and title; a name that fits two members isn't counted, and the reports' text isn't published (it can name family members).
- The Legislature: bills, sponsors and every roll call from Open States (Plural), whose voters are placed by name where Open States doesn't link them. Every House vote is checked against the House's own roll-call pages (150 House members' pages: 104,716 of 104,717 votes agree (1 differed, corrected from the House's record); 811 roll calls on the pages, 720 in Open States).
- Candidates: the Secretary of State's general election candidate list, matched to the Commission's candidate filers by office, district and name.
- The Ethics Commission's decisions: the agenda items of its meetings since 2019 (penalties and waivers, complaints, investigations, audits), with the motion and the vote, as its meeting pages record them; the people an item names are matched to the site's by name and title.
- Bids on state contracts: legislators' Statements of Bid on State Contracts, as the Ethics Commission publishes them each year (scanned forms, transcribed by hand; addresses and phones left out).
- Election results: the Secretary of State's returns for the June 9 primary and the year's special elections: each contest's votes added up over the towns, and for ranked-choice contests the RCV summary report's rounds. A result is linked to a person on the site by office, district and name.
- Home values: Maine has no statewide property search: each town assesses. Where a town's assessor records can be searched by owner (Vision, Patriot Properties and Tyler's systems, and towns' commitment books), each person is searched for by name in the town where they live; a home counts when its owner or co-owner has their first and last name and its use is residential. Where there are two or more, each case is checked by hand (a namesake, a relative, a rental) before any is published; some homes in towns without a search were read by hand from the town's property cards. The assessor's value is shown with its year (43 towns so far); a market estimate, the value divided by the town's certified ratio (Maine Revenue Services), only when the assessment is for the ratio's own year. Addresses and parcels aren't published; a home held in a trust, a company or another person's name isn't found.
- District maps for “Find your races”: the Census Bureau's 2025 boundary files for the House, the Senate, Congress and the counties; district attorneys by county under 30-A MRSA §254. Your location is matched to them in your browser and never sent anywhere.
Search
Search looks through the names of everyone on the site, donors who gave to two or more candidates, employers, bills by title or number and races by office or district. Searches aren't logged.
Matching people
Candidates, members of the Legislature and campaign filers are matched by office, district and name. A name that fits more than one person is left unmatched rather than guessed.
Donors
A donor is a contributor as the campaigns report them: a person by name and ZIP code, anyone else by name, cleaned of spelling differences and merged where we've checked two spellings are the same donor. Only donors who gave to two or more of the 2026 candidates are listed; pages for individual people aren't offered to search engines. Lobbying clients are matched to donors by name.
Findings and their rules
A finding is a prompt to look closer, never a conclusion. Each rests on the law's own words, quoted from a copy saved with the data and checked against it; it says what the records show and what they can't.
Contribution from a lobbyist, lobbyist's employer or lobbying firm during a legislative session (Lobbyists' money)
Members of the Legislature may not accept contributions from lobbyists, lobbyist associates, employers of lobbyists or lobbying firms while the Legislature is in session.
Limits: Givers are matched to the lobbying registrations by name (people by first and last name, organizations by their cleaned name) for the lobbying year of the gift; a different person with the same name would match. The law exempts money that isn't the giver's own (given on behalf of someone else) and gifts for a special election, which the records don't show. Contributions returned are noted when the campaign reported them. The campaign files start on January 1, 2026, so the 2025 sessions aren't covered.
“The Governor, a member of the Legislature, a constitutional officer or the staff or agent of these officials may not intentionally solicit or accept a contribution from a lobbyist, lobbyist associate, employer of a lobbyist or lobbying firm during a legislative session.”1 MRSA §1015-A(2)(A) ✓ quoted from the saved copy
Contribution from a lobbyist outside the member's district, out of session (Lobbyists' money)
Out of session, members may accept a contribution from a lobbyist or lobbyist associate only if the lobbyist can vote in a district where the member will be on the ballot.
Limits: The lobbyist's town is the one the campaign reported for the gift; where they're registered to vote isn't in the records. The district's towns are those the June primary's returns list for it (a city split between districts counts as in each). Names are matched as in the rule above.
“When the Legislature is not in legislative session, the Governor, a member of the Legislature or the staff or agent of these officials may not intentionally solicit or accept a contribution from a lobbyist or lobbyist associate unless the lobbyist or lobbyist associate is eligible to vote or will be eligible to vote on the day of the election in a district where the Governor or member of the Legislature will appear on the ballot.”1 MRSA §1015-A(3)(A) ✓ quoted from the saved copy
Statement of bid on a state contract (State contracts)
A Legislator, or an organization they or their family run or own 10% of, must disclose each bid on a contract with a state agency by 5 p.m. on the day the bid is submitted.
Limits: The statements are transcribed from the Commission's scanned forms (sources/bids.yaml). The form gives the bid's expected date, not when it was actually submitted, and the Commission's stamp of receipt isn't transcribed; a statement signed after the expected date is a prompt to compare the two, not proof it was late.
“When a Legislator or associated organization bids on a contract with a state governmental agency, the Legislator or associated organization shall file a statement with the commission no later than 5:00 p.m. on the day the bid is submitted”1 MRSA §1016-D ✓ quoted from the saved copy
Late-filing penalty before the Ethics Commission (Ethics Commission)
The Commission assesses penalties for campaign reports filed late, and may waive or reduce them.
Limits: From the Commission's meeting pages since 2019; the item is linked to a person by the name in its title. A waiver granted in full is context.
“A campaign finance report is not timely filed unless a properly signed or electronically submitted copy of the report, substantially conforming to the disclosure requirements of this subchapter, is received by the commission by 11:59 p.m. on the date it is due.”21-A MRSA §1020-A(2) ✓ quoted from the saved copy
A complaint or other matter before the Ethics Commission (Ethics Commission)
Anyone may ask the Commission to investigate; it does so when the request shows grounds to believe a violation may have occurred. A complaint is not a finding; what the Commission decided is quoted.
Limits: From the Commission's meeting pages since 2019, linked by the name in the item's title or summary. Marked worth a look only when the motion found a violation or assessed a penalty.
“The commission shall review the application and shall make the investigation if the reasons stated for the request show sufficient grounds for believing that a violation may have occurred.”21-A MRSA §1003(2) ✓ quoted from the saved copy
Outside spending larger than the campaign (Outside spending)
Independent expenditures are made without the candidate's cooperation; where they outweigh what the campaign raised, much of the race's money isn't the candidate's.
Limits: Independent expenditure reports for 2026 (MapLight's file), against the contributions the campaign reported. Context, not wrongdoing.
“"independent expenditure" means any expenditure made by a person, party committee or political action committee that is not made in cooperation, consultation or concert with, or at the request or suggestion of, a candidate”21-A MRSA §1019-B(1) ✓ quoted from the saved copy
Sells goods or services to the state (State contracts)
A Legislator discloses each state agency that they, their family or an associated organization sold, rented or leased $10,000 or more of goods or services to in the year.
Limits: From the personal financial disclosure they filed (the latest year saved). The form gives the agency and the goods, not the amount or the contract; a sale isn't necessarily a bid, so a statement of bid isn't always required.
“Each state governmental agency, board or commission to which the Legislator, a member of the Legislator's immediate family or an associated organization has sold, rented or leased goods or services with a value of $10,000 or more during the preceding calendar year”1 MRSA §1016-G(1)(J) ✓ quoted from the saved copy
Paid to represent others before state agencies (Financial disclosure)
A Legislator discloses each executive branch agency before which they or their family represented or assisted others for compensation.
Limits: From the personal financial disclosure they filed. The form names the agencies, not the clients or the matters.
“Each executive branch agency before which the Legislator or any immediate family member has represented or assisted others for compensation”1 MRSA §1016-G(1)(I) ✓ quoted from the saved copy
Gifts disclosed (Financial disclosure)
A Legislator discloses the specific source of each gift received.
Limits: From the personal financial disclosure they filed. The form gives the source and kind of gift, not its value.
“The specific source of each gift received by the Legislator”1 MRSA §1016-G(1)(F) ✓ quoted from the saved copy
Employer, client or organization also lobbies (Lobbyists' money)
An employer, a client, a business or an organization on their financial disclosure is registered as a client of lobbyists at the Legislature.
Limits: Matched by the organization's name as written on the disclosure and on the lobbying registration; a different organization with the same name would match too. Being employed by a lobbying client isn't wrongdoing: it's a connection worth knowing.
“Each source of income must be identified by name, address and principal type of economic or business activity.”1 MRSA §1016-G(1) ✓ quoted from the saved copy
Snapshot built 2026-10-18T03:35:26+00:00.