I am not a lawyer, I’m not a prosecutor or a defense attorney, but I do know campaigning and local politics.

In local Democratic Party politics, we are taught to never attack your opponent, to never even mention your opponent by name, and to never, ever “go negative.”

There is a reason for this: we’re supposed to think about the day after the election too. If you’ve spent your whole campaign relentlessly attacking and going negative, that leaves scars on the community. Divisions that last for years that make relationships and cooperation more difficult in the future. Negative campaigning poisons the local wells of goodwill and collaboration, and that takes years or decades to undo.

We are also taught that as Democrats, we should not stoop to the kinds of dishonesty that Republicans do. You campaign transparently, in full view of the public, honestly and with intellectual integrity, and educate voters about you, your record and your positions. You don’t use your gift of rhetoric to intentionally mislead the public, particularly about someone’s character, and you certainly don’t brazenly lie. We are better than that.

There’s a reason for this too: by staying positive and honest, even if you don’t win, you’re helping educate the public and strengthen our democracy. Lying and misleading sows the seeds of long-term, population-wide misunderstandings, and erodes people’s faith in democracy as a whole. (If you want to see where this leads, just look at the modern Republican Party.)

This is why I have been so deeply disappointed with the behavior of the Valerie Adams campaign for Cumberland County District Attorney. Almost every day for the last several weeks I’ve heard new rumors about incumbent Jackie Sartoris that seem likely to have been seeded by allies of Adams, or in some cases by Adams herself. Here are some examples, but hardly the comprehensive list:

Anonymous Adams Supporters in the Press Herald Comments: Jackie Sartoris has had “unexplained absences.” (False) And “she frequently disappears for extended periods.” (False)

Anonymous Reddit Commenters: Everyone in Sartoris’s office hates her. (False)

Rumor, allegedly directly from Adams: Jackie Sartoris isn’t prosecuting ICE agents because she’s waiting for a Democratic Administration. (False)

Someone in a text to me: Jackie Sartoris is “unhinged.”

Other rumors I’ve heard from Adams supporters include:

• Sartoris is soft on gun crime (she’s not)
• She’s targeting peaceful protestors for prosecution, heavily implying she’s some kind of crypto-Trumper (she’s not)
• She’s putting immigrants in danger (she’s not)
• She’s ignoring victims of sexual assault (she’s not)
• She is not responding to FOAA requests properly (false) and is missing documents related to Restorative Justice (false) (I’ve heard Adams imply these in Windham, on Peaks, and in Falmouth, at sparsely attended candidate forums.)

The list goes on and on. It’s quite the caricature, if you put it all together.

All the false rumors point in the same direction: they are all shaped to make Sartoris look like she doesn’t actually hold Democratic values, or in some cases to make her look like she’s mentally or emotionally unfit.

If all these rumors are originating with the Adams campaign and their allies, as I suspect they are, it’s less like a campaign and more like a masterclass in character assassination. This flies in the face of everything Democrats are taught about how to campaign. You expect this sort of thing from the Maine Wire, not from a Democratic candidate’s campaign. (There might be a reason for that — keep reading.)

Some rumors lack context and are totally misleading. Others contain outright falsehoods. Others exploit and twist stories from vulnerable people. Others are misleading but the storytellers themselves might not know or understand how they’re misleading. Other stories are quite possibly yarns generated by people working in Sartoris’s own office, who moonlight as gossip-spinners for the Adams and Anderson campaigns.

The breadth and scale of the rumors makes me think this is a deliberate strategy chosen precisely because it’s almost impossible for an opponent to defend against it.

We Democrats trust that the things we hear from Democratic candidates and their allies are based on fact, or at least have been verified by someone up the chain. We would not expect “one of our own” to spread misinformation or hearsay, or to intentionally embellish or invent from whole cloth. Our guard is down when we’re talking with other Democrats.

The Adams campaign strategy seems based on exploiting this trust, flooding the zone with misinformation to paint Sartoris as the single worst person in the county, a Republican in sheep’s clothing, a person with “good intentions” (Adams’s words) but who can’t be trusted with leadership — so Adams can swoop in as the “real” progressive, the White Knight who can fix it. Adams doesn’t need to have any platform at all — she just needs to appear better than the three-headed, man-eating dragon they’ve created in the shadows.

As friend recently said, “I can’t tell you a single thing Valerie Adams stands for without using the word ‘Sartoris.’”

As far as I can tell, the Adams campaign has happened almost entirely in secret:

• She has sent zero pieces of official campaign mail, as far as I know.
• She has had only two letters-to-the-editor in the Portland Press Herald.
• She has deployed only one social media ad — a short, glossy video that’s very low on content, with an extremely low ad budget.
• She has very little on her social media accounts, and almost nothing about policy or positions on there.
• There’s not a lot on her campaign website, and until yesterday — two days before the election — she didn’t even bother to list endorsements on there at all.

By the standards of a traditional campaign, this doesn’t make any sense. Despite these missing pieces, Adams still has an impressive number of campaign signs in roadways across the county, has raised significantly more money than Sartoris, and has quite a few devoted supporters — who seem much more interested in opposing Sartoris than supporting Adams.

So there must be communication happening somewhere — but where? Where are these new converts being converted?

This is, I suspect, where the Adams “whisper campaign” comes in: the forwarded texts, the outreach by Adams and her allies via DM and phone calls, the planted comments online by anonymous accounts spreading misinformation (like user “KeepinitReal” in the Press Herald comments), the posts by surrogates on NextDoor and Reddit attacking Sartoris, and — according to Adams herself — many “house parties” (typically private, invitation-only gatherings).

All mediums where the other candidate has little to no ability to respond to any allegations. Who is at these house parties? What are they saying? Sartoris may never know. The general public may never know. But the gossip being generated there is percolating out into the community.

“But Joey, hardly anyone pays attention to the DA race, we need to get the word out — that’s why we need the house parties.” Then why no mailers? Why no more than a token Instagram ad? Why so few letters to the editor? Because misinformation printed on a mailer and sent to voters would be instantly fact-checked by the opposing candidate. Better to deploy it in secret.

This is deeply not-normal for a Maine Democratic primary. We are supposed to be having a public airing of the issues. Voter education and outreach, mass media, all that normal stuff. What it appears we have instead is a massive cloak-and-dagger smear campaign.

And this is where we need to talk about longtime Republican DA Stephanie Anderson and the Maine Wire. Anderson was DA of Cumberland County from 1990 to 2018 — almost thirty years. She was a Republican the whole time.

She was still a Republican until 2025 — now she is running against Sartoris in the general election as an “Independent” but is nevertheless simultaneously a Town Chair for Cape Elizabeth for Republican Senator Susan Collins’s re-election campaign.

Adams worked with Anderson when she was DA, and Adams and Anderson have both served on the Cape Elizabeth town council, albeit separated by a few years. (According to public records, Adams’s inactive voter registration in Cape is “Unenrolled” — not a Democrat. She last voted in Cape in 2020, and has since moved to Pownal. It is unknown when she first registered as a Democrat.)

According to the Maine Wire — a racist Republican tabloid infamous for harassing immigrants and Democratic politicians, in case you are blessedly unfamiliar with it — Anderson announced at a meeting of the Cumberland County Republicans in April that she would run against Sartoris this November as an Independent if Adams didn’t win the Democratic Primary. If Adams did win, she would drop out. (Read that again. It’s weird.) Anderson also donated $100 to Adams’s campaign.

Update from the future: Adams did not win the Primary, so Anderson is making good on her threat to challenge Sartoris. Adams has now endorsed Anderson.

The piece by Jon Fetherston at the Maine Wire initially looked like this:

The meeting also featured a special announcement involving Cumberland County politics. Attendees were told that Stephanie Anderson, who spent 28 years as Cumberland County’s district attorney, has agreed to return to run again for the position.

During the announcement, Anderson said she plans to step back into the race prosecuting criminals and outlined her intention to take on what she described as a “Soros backed menace” who won the office four years ago, referring to current Cumberland County District Attorney Jackie Sartoris.

But within hours, he sanitized it. Now it looks like this:

The meeting also featured a special announcement involving Cumberland County politics. Attendees were told that Stephanie Anderson (I), who spent 28 years as Cumberland County’s district attorney, has agreed to return to run again for the position.

Anderson made it very clear that if Valerie Adams, a former Assistant District Attorney in Cumberland County, defeats the current Cumberland County DA, Jackie Sartoris (D) in the Democrat primary, Anderson would withdraw from the race.

He removed Anderson’s quote about Sartoris being a “Soros backed menace,” and instead he emphasizes that Anderson is an Independent. Unsuspecting readers might not realize that Anderson had been a Republican for decades until only recently. Curious.

And who got the scoop about Adams’s firing before anyone else? Before WGAN radio (November 17, 2025), before the Press Herald (November 14), and before WMTW (November 10)?

That’s right: Jon Fetherston at the the Maine Wire (November 8).

His article about the incident, which he says was written with “information provided to the Maine Wire by a source familiar with the situation,” reads like a glowing endorsement of Valerie Adams.

Before Valerie Adams entered the race, the Maine Wire had harassed Sartoris and her family for years. In a particularly gross Facebook post [screenshot] on November 25, 2025, they alleged, among other things, that:

• that “the entire office did not like her”
• that she was “frequently absent”
• that was “fostering a toxic workplace environment leading to the exit of ADA Valerie Adams.”

Oh wait, where I have heard these before…

Since November 25 though, the Maine Wire has been radio silent. They appear to be giving Valerie Adams a wide berth, perhaps to avoid calling attention to themselves and their possible connections to all this. Or perhaps they’ve just relocated their smear apparatus to inside the castle walls of the Adams campaign.

Are we witnessing Republicans and the Maine Wire — and their tabloid & slander tactics — quietly infiltrating a Democratic primary? I think it’s entirely possible.

A friend texted me yesterday: “We have lost sight of what we are doing here. No one wins with this amount of nastiness. People just don’t realize the precedent this stuff sets. And it just gets worse and worse.”

I completely agree. In their quest to win at all costs, by saying whatever and doing whatever, mostly in secret, they have lost sight of the fact that this isn’t just about winning — this is about democracy, community, and trust.

I think there are probably valid critiques of Sartoris out there — nobody is perfect. But if there are valid critiques, they’re being totally drowned out by misinformation, rumors, innuendo, and attacks on her character.

This type of campaigning won’t just affect the outcome of the election on Tuesday — it will leave fault lines in the community for years to come. The aftermath of dishonest, unethical, scorched-earth tactics will make it harder for everyone to collaborate and accomplish things in the future. It is poisoning our whole local political ecosystem by spreading mistrust and confusion, instead of fostering cooperation and understanding.

I was naive about how dishonest and devious people could be before this campaign. This has been eye opening, to say the least, and profoundly disappointing.

Note: These are my thoughts and mine alone. I am supporting DA Sartoris and helping with her re-election campaign — in part because this whole situation is so appalling — but she had no part in writing this piece. I have always stood up for integrity in local elections. My moral compass demands that I say something about what has transpired here, even if only for posterity. The Adams campaign’s style has been uniquely rotten and destabilizing. If this is what local campaigning becomes in Southern Maine, we will all be worse off.

I refuse to accept that there’s nothing we can do.

Monday morning ICE agents shot and killed Joan Sebastian Guerrero, an innocent 26-year-old man in Biddeford. He was a member of our community, a father driving to work.

Last week, ICE agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, Texas. Both men were shot in their cars, just like Renee Good in Minneapolis, Carlitos Ricardo Parias in Los Angeles, and Ruben Ray Martinez in Texas.

These were not accidents. This is the predictable result of Donald Trump hiring a bunch of untrained yahoos and white nationalists into ICE and quadrupling their budget.

The President and his allies are waging a campaign of terror on our communities. It’s unacceptable and un-American. We must not stand for this. We must take action.

A year ago, long before the January surge in Maine, I repeatedly warned the Portland City Council that ICE was coming to our communities soon, and demanded that we make preparations.

ICE may be less visible now, but they remain just as much of a threat: two weeks ago, ICE detained 10,000 people nationwide in a span of just 5 days. ICE has not gone away, they’ve just gotten quieter.

I am calling on the City of Portland and surrounding towns to immediately form a partnership to treat ICE and CBP agents as a threat to public safety, and monitor and share information region-wide in real time about their whereabouts and actions.

This partnership should collect and aggregate data about ICE activity and share that information with community groups and the public so that we can be as prepared as possible when they bring terror to our streets.

Our neighbors are training to become observers — our towns and cities can be observers too. They cannot just pretend this isn’t happening and look the other way.

And this isn’t just a Portland problem or just a Biddeford problem — we can’t stop at our city limits, we need to organize and cooperate across town lines to keep our residents safe.

We cannot just let this pass without answer. We need to stand up and make it clear that this is not acceptable in this country, and not let it become normalized. Join a protest, get trained to be an observer, call or email your local elected officials and demand action.

ICE will tell us that they’re reviewing things, that they’re making some gesture towards better behavior. Do not believe them. The same people are still in charge, the same agents — many of whom were Proud Boys yesterday — are still on our streets. Keep pushing back. ICE must be abolished.

That’s why I am also calling on all Maine communities to do the following:

• Pass ordinances like Portland’s to ban cooperation between local law enforcement and ICE
• Designate “ICE‑free zones” so federal agents cannot use city‑owned parking lots, garages, or vacant land as staging areas for raids.
• Close ICE detention facilities that exist in your towns (looking at you, Scarborough)
• Cancel contracts with entities that ICE uses for their campaign of terror (e.g. Palantir)

If you want more ways to plug in as an individual, here are some starters:

• Sign this petition to demand that MaineHealth end its partnership with Palantir
• Consult this great list of local organizations to support and/or join
• I also maintain a list of organizations in Portland that you can join to fight the fascists

Democracy is just us. If we don’t want to become a country where we all live in fear of untrained federal agents randomly murdering any of us, we need to make it abundantly clear that we will not accept that future. We will not allow it to become normalized, we will not allow it to quietly take root.

This will not be easy: it will take many years for this evil to be undone and it will require us to all change how we interact with the world, but we have to do it. This is the great struggle of our generation. But these fights have been won before. The key to winning is you.

How our cities and towns can fight back against ICE, right now. was originally published in Joey Brunelle for Portland City Council on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I tell my friends in other cities how great and how unique Portland is. Portland taught me what community means. I’ve been so inspired over the years by my neighbors who donate their time, their energy, their minds, their hard work to making this city, in small and large ways, a better place.

They’ve inspired me to work to fight climate change, protect our neighbors and institutions from Trump and his goons, clean up our local elections, and keep Portland affordable and livable.

I see storm clouds on the horizon for the next few years. You probably do too. We might be afraid of what’s coming, but I also have total faith in our ability as Portlanders to rise to the occasion and stand up for each other.

It will not be easy, but I see in these challenges an opportunity for us to show the world what community and democracy are really capable of.

We need to start thinking more creatively. We need to start being bold again. Too often we find reasons why we can’t do something. We need to go back to finding ways we can do things.

Fighting climate change. Improving public transit. Making our streets safe for bicyclists and pedestrians. Making housing affordable for renters and homeowners. Building more housing. Creating more well paying jobs.

I can see a future in which we finally make housing affordable again, in which all our neighbors feel safe, in which we have abundant well paying jobs, in which Portland is a place where every artist, musician, punk, professional, drag queen, teacher, lobsterman, immigrant, child, parent, and grandparent can thrive.

City Hall is where this has to start. I know we can do it, because I know who we are. We’re Portland! We’re Maine! We’re creative problem solvers. We’re hard workers. We’re stubborn as hell! We stand up for what’s right, and we always lead with kindness and heart.

I am running for City Council to change how we think about the problems we face, and change how City Hall thinks about them too.

We need to remember that government can actually do hard things, and can do them well!

We need to remember that public engagement isn’t just a box to check, but it’s an opportunity to tap into the infinite energy and know-how of our community.

We need to remember that we’re not just a city on an island, but that we can work together with our neighboring towns to do big, important things together.

And we need to remember that what makes Portland truly great isn’t just the scenic coastline or the food. The thing that makes Portland great are its people, and we need a City Hall that’s proactive, that’s responsive, that works for us and works to improve our lives in tangible ways. That’s what it’s there for.

For the last decade I’ve been fighting for a City Hall that works for us, from clean elections to municipal composting, from better wages to stronger cruise ship regulations, from police oversight to smarter transportation. And most recently I’ve fought to counter Trump and the fascist takeover that’s trickling down to us.

With your support in November, I’ll keep fighting alongside you. We’ll do it together.

Right now, I need your help to get this campaign off the ground. I’m incredibly proud to participate in Portland’s Municipal “Clean Elections” program — a program that I was instrumental in creating, after I first proposed it in my campaign platform in 2017.

Traditionally-financed candidates will have to spend countless hours “dialing for dollars” from wealthy political donors. But to qualify for public campaign financing and avoid that myself, I need several hundred $5 “qualifying contributions” from people like you. Can you give $5 today? It’s easy — you can make a contribution conveniently online, right here.

If you are able to give more, would you additionally contribute up to $100 (maximum) of “seed money” to my campaign? Here are the instructions. These contributions will pay for a website, flyers, and signs.

If you would like to help in other ways, like hosting a house party, knocking on doors, or putting a campaign sign in your yard, just send me an email. I’d love to hear from you. :-)

Let’s keep working together. Thank you for everything you do.

— Joey

Why I’m running for City Council was originally published in Joey Brunelle for Portland City Council on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

*** UPDATED OCTOBER 29 WITH THE LATEST DATA ***

Sam Aborne [website] is seeking election to an at-large seat on the Portland, Maine City Council this year, 2025. He is challenging incumbent Pious Ali [website]. (An analysis of Ali’s donors can be found here.)

Aborne is Head of Partnerships and Alliances at Bloomfilter.ai, a company that makes AI tools for software development teams.

Aborne and Ali have both chosen to not to participate in the City of Portland’s “Clean Elections” public financing program, so have raised private funds for their campaigns.

By the filing period end (October 21, 2025), Aborne had received:

• 60 contributions larger than $50; one-third (20) of those contributions were of the legal maximum of $600
• an unreported number of contributions smaller than $50, totaling $927.80 (Personally identifying information — like name, employer and occupation — is not required for donations smaller than $50.)
• $100 from himself

** The full list of categorized contributions can be found at the very bottom of this post. (In response to feedback, I have blacked out addresses to protect people’s privacy and personal safety.) **

Business Owners, CEOs (23 contributions = $9,150 = 40.4%)

Steve DiMillo is the owner of DiMillo’s On The Water (also known as DiMillo’s Restaurant). He is a prominent local Republican, and is hosting the annual Cumberland County Republicans “Make Christmas Great Again” fundraiser [1] at his restaurant on December 16. He also ran unsuccessfully for Charter Commission in 2021, and blamed Ranked Choice Voting for his loss.

Chris DiMillo, who falsely lists his address as 1 Long Wharf, actually lives in Cumberland. He is the CEO of DiMillo’s Yacht Sales. (1 Long Wharf is his business’s address, not his place of residence as required by law.)

Phineas Sprague Jr., heir to the Sprague Oil fortune, is the owner of Portland Yacht Services.

Brian Petrovek was CEO of the Portland Pirates for 14 years. He later became CEO of the United Way of Southern Maine.

Jean Hoffman is a serial extrepreneur in the pharmeceutical industry. She was the founder, President and CEO of Putney, Inc., a pharma company for pets, until selling it for $200 million in cash.

Jamie Isaacson is the owner of the North Atlantic Blues Festival.

Marcy Morrison, who lists her occupation as “Health Coach” with no employer, bills herself as a “Corporate Health Consultant” who writes on her website that she “only works with corporations.”

Ruth Matt, who lists her occupation as “Financial Advisor” with no employer, is the Founder & CEO of Fore River Financial, a local firm which does financial and investment advising and consulting.

Jared Levin lists himself as retired. Before his retirement, he was the CEO of Mainely Tubs, a regional sauna & hot tub dealer.

Real Estate & Landlords (15 contributions = $6,541 = 28.9%)

Ned Payne, who lists his occupation as “property maintenance” at “Self,” is a major local landlord and Vice President of the Rental Housing Alliance of Southern Maine (formerly the Southern Maine Landlords Association). He is also responsible for the fake Wes Pelletier campaign signs that were put up to confuse voters in Fall 2024.

Editor’s Note: Sam Aborne was invited to speak at a private member luncheon for the Rental Housing Alliance (formerly Southern Maine Landlord’s Association) on September 16, 2025. (His opponent, Pious Ali, was not invited.)

Chris Aceto, who lists his residence as Lewiston, is a major landlord there, owning 68 apartments.

Chip Lawrence lists himself as a “flight instructor,” but he’s also Sales Operations Manager at CORE, a local commercial real estate brokerage and management company with $125 billion dollars of property and nearly 20 million acres of land throughout Maine.

Gregory Boulos and Nate Stevens are both from The Boulos Company, which has historically been hired by the City of Portland to sell city land.

Jim Brady is a “Real estate consultant” (consultant, not salaried) at the Fathom Companies, a major local real estate development firm, where he is also President and Founder. Among other things, he is responsible for developing the Press Hotel, and is the Manager of Monument Hotel LLC, which has purchased the former Fidelity Trust (also known as the Maine Bank & Trust) at Congress St. & Preble St. to develop it into a 101-room boutique hotel. (He does not own any housing units.) [This was corrected on 10/5/2025 to reflect that Mr. Brady is not behind the Time & Temperature Building redevelopment, but the building next door, as well as the fact that he does not own any housing units. Thanks to Mr. Brady for reaching out to me with corrections and clarifications.]

Bobbi Cope, who lists her occupation as “retired” and employer as “Self,” is a local landlord with her husband Steven Cope, another donor.

Sara Ichelson is either currently or formerly the Director of Strategic Programs Office at CBRE, a giant commercial real estate services and investment group based in Dallas, Texas. Midhun John, another donor, lists himself as a Director at CBRE. Both used addresses in the Dallas metro area.

Technology & AI (6 contributions = $2,350 = 10.4%)

Avinash Misra is the Founder & CEO of Skan.ai, which uses AI to “map, model, and manage business processes by creating digital twins of human/digital interactions” and “replaces human interviews and observation, which are not accurate, by cognitive tooling that learns based on observation of human/digital work.” [source]

Eddie Hanson, Brian Kurr, and Erik Severinghaus all list themselves as working at Bloomfilter.ai. Presumably they are all co-workers of Mr. Aborne.

Rachel Hronek lists herself as a “Senior Director” at Blue Yonder, a German company specializing in AI-based tools for logistic, supply chain, labor, and transportation management. As of her donation on September 9, 2025, she listed “Sr Director” at “Blue Yonder” as her occupation/employer, however she might not longer work here: she is not listed on their Leadership page, and her name appears to have been scrubbed from their blog. (A cached page says she was hired in mid-2019 and in 2020 held the title of “Customer Experience Director for North American Retail.”)

Brooks Olphin lists his occupation/employer as “Process” at “J&J” (Johnson & Johnson). His actual title is “Process and Task Mining Manager.” He writes a substack about how to use machine learning and other technologies to improve business processes and something called “process mining.”

Joshua Murphy is the VP of Strategic Partnerships at Norstella, which describes itself as “one of the largest global pharma intelligence solution providers.”

Medical Professionals (5 contributions = $1,850 = 8.2%)

Dr. R. Samuel Cady is a local ophthalmologist at Maine Eye Center, and was himself a candidate for City Council in 2023 when he ran unsuccessfully against Anna Bullett for the District 4 seat. (His presence in this list might explain the unusually large number of donations from surgeons, specialists and medical professionals, e.g. head & neck surgery otolaryngologist Dr. David Hurst, vascular surgeon Nathan Aranson, optometrist Holly McCarthy, etc.)

Other

Karen Lerman is the Director of the Southern Maine Jewish Cemetery Association.

John Richardson is the VP of Finance at Mission Clean Energy. (additional source)

Methodology

To create this report, I examined the publicly-available reports on the Portland City Clerk’s website, specifically the 42-Day Pre-Election reports, which were due on September 23, 2025, and the 11-Day Pre-Election reports, which were due on October 27, 2025.

People will sometimes lie or mislead when giving their occupation or employer, so I do a deep Google search for every single donor until I can ascertain who they really are. I can usually find more information about individuals this way, but not always. I always link to my sources.

For the categorization, I let the data lead me to the most prevalent categories for donors. As I research every donor, these categories become obvious from the data, though they are different for each candidate depending on the social, professional, and political circles they travel in.

For the candidate photos, I just used the photo they each used on their own website’s homepage at the time of publication. I did not make any changes to image quality or color. I used the photos they chose to present to voters.

The reports for Pious Ali and Sam Aborne took approximately one week to complete. I never contact any candidates before doing these analyses. They have no prior knowledge of, and no influence on, my research and analysis. They learn about my analysis at the same time you do.

I do not editorialize. I do not draw conclusions from what I see — I leave that to you, dear reader. (However I will call out lies and misinformation when I see it in the reports.) My job is to inform and to educate, so that our often-murky political process can be a little more transparent.

I am just an amateur doing this in my spare time, so I do sometimes make mistakes. Readers are encouraged to send any requests for corrections to me at joey.brunelle@gmail.com.

UPDATED: Who Funded Your Candidate: Sam Aborne, City Council At-Large 2025 was originally published in Joey Brunelle for Portland City Council on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

*** UPDATED OCTOBER 29 WITH THE LATEST DATA ***

Councilor Pious Ali [website] is seeking re-election to an at-large seat on the Portland, Maine City Council this year, 2025. He is being challenged by newcomer Sam Aborne [website]. (An analysis of Aborne’s donors can be found here.)

Ali works as Co-Executive Director of the Forward Ever Collective Foundation, a non-profit based in Washington, DC that provides youth development, education, and legal support for Ghanaian immigrants.

Aborne and Ali have both chosen to not to participate in the City of Portland’s “Clean Elections” public financing program, so have raised private funds for their campaigns.

By the filing period end (October 21, 2025), Ali’s campaign had received:

• 28 contributions larger than $50, totalling $4,490 (none of Ali’s contributions were of the maximum legal limit of $600)
• 1 contribution of $10 from an unknown donor (donations under $50 do not require any identifying information)
• $6,722.75 carried over from his unsuccessful 2023 campaign for Mayor.

Because a significant portion of Ali’s campaign funds were carried over from 2023, I have included the donors from his last fundraising report from the 2023 mayoral campaign in my analysis. This does not meaningfully change the analysis, as the donor pools are very similar.

In the last fundraising period in 2023, when much of Councilor Ali’s current campaign funds were raised, he received:

• 52 contributions larger than $50, including 7 donations of the legal maximum (at the time) of $500 (note: the maximum has since been raised to $600)
• 86 contributions smaller than $50, totaling $2,620, for an average of $30.47 per small donation. (Personally identifying information— like name, employer and occupation — is not required for donations smaller than $50.)

** The full list of categorized contributions can be found at the very bottom of this post. (In response to feedback, I have blacked out addresses to protect people’s privacy and personal safety.) **

Social Work & Healthcare (20 contributions = $3,550 = 20.7%)

Bruce Bennet is the CEO of Ubuntu Health, a Maine company that delivers at-home healthcare.

Ali Dieng is a regional manager for Building Bright Futures (BBF), a non-profit which works to improve the well-being of young children and families in Vermont.

Abeir Ibrahim is a co-founder of Cross Cultural Community Services, a Maine non-profit focused on advancing health equity by reframing racism as a public health issue. The organization’s other two co-founders are Portland’s District 3 Councilor Regina Philips, and South Portland State Legislator Deca Dhalac — both also contributed to Ali’s campaign.

Rilwan Osman is the Executive Director at Maine Immigrant and Refugee Services (MEIRS).

Kossi Gamedah is a local entrepreneur and serves on the board of Goodwill Northern New England.

Nikki Williams, listed as a “self-employed Consultant,” may be the same Nikki Williams who is currently a Program Director at the United Way of Southern Maine.

Dr. Sarah Ashitey is a Family Medicine Physician in Dallas, Texas.

Helen Breña of Falmouth, Maine is the CEO of the YMCA of Southern Maine.

Education & Arts (16 contributions = $3,000 = 17.5%)

Kimberly Simmons is a part-time, Associate Professor of Women and Gender Studies at the University of Southern Maine.

Xavier Botana was superintendent of Portland Public Schools from 2016–2022.

Mara Sanchez, PhD lists herself as a “part time lecturer” at the University of Southern Maine, where she specializes in youth justice issues.

Lisa Hicks is a dance instructor at Portland Public Schools, as well as director and founder of Art Camp Maine, a summer camp for children in kindergarten through 8th grade.

Catherine Lee is a Maine attorney who provides climate advisory services to public and private sector clients, project developers, and sellers and buyers of carbon credits. She also serves on a number of local boards, including the Board of the University of Maine School of Law Foundation Board.

Julia Whyel, listed as “unemployed,” describes herself online as a documentary filmmaker and photographer.

Anne Fowler, retired of Portland, is also a former educator, an Episcopal priest, a poet, and an activist. She has published five books of poetry and volunteers at The Telling Room.

Linda Carleton of Portland is a retired UCC Minister and graduate of Yale Divinity School. She is also a published author.

Government & Politics (11 contributions = $1,750 = 10.2%)

Sheikh Rahman is a Bangladeshi-American State Senator from Lawrenceville, Georgia.

Sophie Mintier is the Planning Assistant Director for the County of San Mateo, California.

Deqa for State is the campaign committee of Maine House Rep. Deqa Dhalac of South Portland. (It is perfectly legal for one campaign committee to contribute to another, just like a contribution from a company. They are constrained by the same limit on the amount as an individual.)

Benjamin Chin is the Deputy Director of the Maine People’s Alliance. He also unsuccessfully ran for Mayor of Lewiston in 2015 and 2017.

Veobia Akilo is the Chief of Staff of the City Department of Transportation in Baltimore, Maryland.

Katie Mae Simpson is the Executive Director of the Maine Democracy Collaborative. She was also the Executive Director of the Maine Democratic Party from 2016–2019.

Raaheela Ahmed is the National Legislative & Organizing Director of 100% Democracy, a advocacy group that promotes expanding universal voting. She also unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic nomination in a Maryland State Senate race in 2022.

Investing & Venture Capital (4 contributions = $1,100 = 6.4%)

Kathryn Finney is the Founder and “Managing General Partner” at the Genius Guild, a $20 million venture fund built to support Black entrepreneurs.

Phil Caruso is a Partner at Kearny Private Equity.

Justin Schair is Managing Partner at Acadia Capital Group, a Maine firm which invests in technology, finance and real estate.

Other

Marnie Morrione is a former member of the Portland School Board, and now does travel planning/tours of Italy through her company Amoria Journeys.

Donald Bresnahan is Senior Vice President of Building Infrastructure Management Solutions (BIMS), which specializes in building and repairing schools.

Moravia “Tito” Drice is the owner of Tito Masonry & Construction, a Portland business.

Paddy Dadzie, who lists himself as unemployed, was at one point a Cyber Security and IT Expert at Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Carol Wishcamper is the wife of Lyndel “Joe” Wishcamper, local real estate magnate and major charitable donor. The Wishcamper Center at the University of Southern Maine is named after the couple.

Ramatu Brimah lists his occupation as “Finance” at “Kenvue.” If it’s the same Kenvue, that was formerly the Consumer Healthcare division of Johnson & Johnson, which makes a variety of well-known consumer products like Tylenol.

Methodology

To create this report, I examined the publicly-available reports on the Portland City Clerk’s website, specifically the 42-Day Pre-Election reports, which were due on September 23, 2025.

People will sometimes lie or mislead when giving their occupation or employer, so I do a deep Google search for every single donor until I can ascertain who they really are. I can usually find more information about individuals this way, but not always. I always link to my sources.

For the categorization, I let the data lead me to the most prevalent categories for donors. As I research every donor, these categories become obvious from the data, though they are different for each candidate depending on the social, professional, and political circles they travel in.

For the candidate photos, I just used the photo they each used on their own website’s homepage at the time of publication. I did not make any changes to image quality or color. I used the photos they chose to present to voters.

The reports for Pious Ali and Sam Aborne took approximately one week to complete. I never contact any candidates before doing these analyses. They have no prior knowledge of, and no influence on, my research and analysis. They learn about my analysis at the same time you do.

I do not editorialize. I do not draw conclusions from what I see — I leave that to you, dear reader. (However I will call out lies and misinformation when I see it in the reports.) My job is to inform and to educate, so that our often-murky political process can be a little more transparent.

I am just an amateur doing this in my spare time, so I do sometimes make mistakes. Readers are encouraged to send any requests for corrections to me at joey.brunelle@gmail.com.

UPDATED: Who Funded Your Candidate: Pious Ali, City Council At-Large 2025 was originally published in Joey Brunelle for Portland City Council on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This is the second in a six-part series. Today we’re looking at city councilor and mayoral candidate Belinda Ray. We will also be looking at Nick Mavodones, Spencer Thibodeau, Jon Torsch, Emily Figdor, and Jeanne Swanton in this series.

The records below were submitted by the candidate to the Portland City Clerk, who does not require that information be submitted digitally. The Clerk retains the records on paper, so the only way to compile information is by taking scans/screenshots of each page. (Yes, it’s 2019 and we’re still pushing paper.)

Footnotes

1. Victoria Morales is the Executive Director of the Quality Housing Coalition, a 501c3 non-profit and private housing industry advocacy organization funded by Tom Watson (owner of Port Property Management) and Brit Vitalius (owner of Vitalius Reality and head of the Southern Maine Landlords Association).

Who funded your candidate: Belinda Ray was originally published in Joey Brunelle for Portland City Council on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This is the second in a six-part series. Today we’re looking at city councilor and mayoral candidate Spencer Thibodeau. We will also be looking at Nick Mavodones, Belinda Ray, Jon Torsch, Emily Figdor, and Jeanne Swanton in this series.

The records below were submitted by the candidate to the Portland City Clerk, who does not require that information be submitted digitally. The Clerk retains the records on paper, so the only way to compile information is by taking scans/screenshots of each page. (Yes, it’s 2019 and we’re still pushing paper.)

Footnotes

1. Brandon Mazer currently serves as Vice-Chair of the City of Portland Planning Board.
2. Sean Dundon currently serves as Chair of the City of Portland Planning Board.
3. James “Jim” Brady is a local real estate developer, most known for the Press Hotel and the 58 Fore Street redevelopment, also known as CPB2.
4. Patricia Hagge is married to Cyrus Hagge, a local real estate developer.
5. Toby McGrath is a registered lobbyist, who currently represents Maine Professionals for Regulating Marijuana and Stonewall Kitchen, among others.
6. Michael Saxl is a registered lobbyist, and currently represents Visa, Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare, AT&T, and the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, among others. He has also previously represented Trans Canada Pipelines, Ltd.
7. James Cohen is a registered lobbyist, and currently represents Emera Energy, Summit Natural Gas, and Verizon, among others.
8. Justin Alfond is a local business owner, but also a real estate developer. He has been part of organizations that have recently bid on parcels of public land that the City has sold to private developers.
9. Gerard Conley is the attorney who represented Alex Gray of Waterfront Concerts, when Gray was accused of domestic violence.
10. Tom Watson is the owner of Port Property Management.
11. Christopher O’Neil is a registered lobbyist, and currently represents Delta Dental. He has previously represented State Farm Insurance and Bank of America.
12. David Eaton is a Senior Originator at Housing and Health Care Finance, LLC — a healthcare real estate firm.
13. Barry Sheff is a Senior Principal and Senior Project Manager at Woodward & Curran, where he focuses on public sector infrastructure and private sector real estate development.

Who funded your candidate: Spencer Thibodeau was originally published in Joey Brunelle for Portland City Council on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This is the first in a six-part series investigating who funded local candidates in 2018. Today we’re looking at 8-term city councilor Nicholas “Nick” Mavodones. We will also be investigating Spencer Thibodeau, Belinda Ray, Jon Torsch, Emily Figdor, and Jeanne Swanton in the coming weeks.

The records below were submitted by the candidate to the Portland City Clerk. The Clerk does not require that candidates submit this information digitally, and the Clerk retains the records on paper, so the only way to compile information is by taking scans/screenshots of each page. (Yes, it’s 2019 and we’re still pushing paper.)

Footnotes

1. The Maine Center for Graduate Professional Studies is a partnership with the University of Southern Maine. Even though George Campbell was the CEO of this organization, I did not feel it was appropriate to group with this other for-profit businesses.
2. Thomas Valleau lists on his LinkedIn profile that he is the Executive Director of the North Atlantic Ports Association, trade association of commercial seaports.
3. Patricia Hagge is married to Cyrus Hagge, a local real estate developer.
4. James “Jim” Brady is a local real estate developer, most known for the Press Hotel and the 58 Fore Street redevelopment, also known as CPB2.
5. Justin Alfond is a local business owner, but also a real estate developer. He has been part of organizations that have recently bid on parcels of public land that the City has sold to private developers.
6. Gary Wood is a retired attorney, formerly corporation counsel for the City of Portland.
7. Rachael Alfond is married to Justin Alfond. (See 5.)
8. Julia Brady is married to James “Jim” Brady. (See 4.)
9. Mary Costigan has previously represented the 58 Fore Street development company CPB2 (see 4). Before that she was hired by the City of Portland to be the city’s lobbyist to the State Legislature (2008–2010).
10. Gerard Conley is the attorney who represented Alex Gray of Waterfront Concerts, when Gray was accused of domestic violence.
11. CBRE is a real estate brokerage firm, which the City of Portland has recently hired to sell many parcels of publicly-owned land to private developers.
12. Phineas Sprague is a real estate developer who has owned large tracts of land on the Western Waterfront.
13. John Schiavi was formerly associated with Schiavi Homes, a local residential development firm and homebuilder.

Other notes:

• “Spring Street West Corp” — which donated $800 to Nick’s campaign — is the former name of Port Property Management, the property management company owned by Tom Watson, who (together with his family) donated an additional $2100 to Nick’s campaign.
• Lot 5 Liberty is the property development company owned by Jonathan Cohen. Cohen and his company each gave Nick’s campaign $800.

Who funded your candidate: Nick Mavodones was originally published in Joey Brunelle for Portland City Council on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This letter was written by Portland resident Christian MilNeal and submitted to the Portland Planning Board on October 23, 2018. It is part of the public record.

To the planning department and planning board:

If you haven’t already, please take a look at the IPCC’s “Summary for Policymakers” document from the recent Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15).

The most important takeaway is essentially that we (the City of Portland, along with every other public jurisdiction on Earth) need to cut emissions in half within the next 10 years, and completely by 2040, in order to preserve the conditions necessary for civilization.

And in fact, the jurisdictions that care about these impacts (and I would hope that the City of Portland is among them) will need to act even faster, and more dramatically, to compensate from a lack of action from other jurisdictions that don’t take sufficient action.

In practical terms for us, this means continuing our work to reduce heating and cooling expenditures, and increasing our use of renewable energy, both on-site and from the grid. In those sectors the data suggest that Maine and Portland are more or less on track to meet the IPCC’s requirements.

But building systems and electricity are each a small component of Maine’s emissions — the biggest source of greenhouse gases here comes from motor vehicle tailpipes, and those emissions are still increasing statewide.

As a city, we need to shift from a place where 80% of trips are made by automobile to a place where 80% of trips are made on foot, bike or public transit. And, if we want to preserve the legal, ecological and economic systems that enable our city to exist, we need to do this in the next 10 years.

These are the laws of physics; let’s now turn to the zoning laws of the City of Portland, where, contrary to the threats we face, businesses like Wex are still being required to build hundreds of parking spaces in a downtown location with abundant access to bike routes, walkable neighborhoods, buses and ferry routes.

I understand that the Planning Board does not have the authority to demand that Jonathan Cohen redesign his project for the car-free future we urgently need to build. And I don’t expect Wex, a company in the business of facilitating gasoline purchases, to take bold leadership here.

Rather, this example, and the thousands of additional parking garage spaces currently being planned in our downtown, should serve as an urgent warning that the city’s planning staff need to come up with new policies, now, that give our city a fighting chance of staying above water.

This case — where a developer is proposing a structure to hold 600 climate-baking machines in a location that will almost certainly be flooded by mid-century if other developers continue to follow the same example — serves as a clear wake-up call to how out-of-date and self-destructive Portland’s current zoning and transportation policies are.

We need you to do better.

Christian MilNeil

A letter to the Planning Board about Climate Change — by Christian Milneal was originally published in Joey Brunelle for Portland City Council on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Building a large, centralized shelter in Nason’s Corner won’t go far enough to end homelessness, and could repeat many of the mistakes of Bayside in a new neighborhood.

As you have probably heard, the City of Portland is currently proposing to build a 200-bed homeless shelter in the Nason’s Corner neighborhood, on the campus of the Barron Center on Brighton Avenue.

This shelter would be designed to replace the Oxford Street Shelter in Bayside — a facility that is overcrowded, run-down and totally insufficient.

Conditions at Oxford Street have (quite accurately) been described as “inhumane,” and the concentration of social services in Bayside has led to an unsafe environment for residents and for those accessing services.

The Oxford Street shelter must be replaced. But what the City of Portland is proposing to build in Nason’s Corner — a large shelter with centralized services, in a residential neighborhood—may repeat many of the mistakes of the past without creating better outcomes for those in need.

Bigger isn’t always better

The proposed 200-bed shelter in Nason’s Corner would be the third largest homeless shelter in all of New England — larger than the largest facilities in Rhode Island (110 beds) and Connecticut (126 beds).

In fact, it is roughly equivalent in size to the largest shelter in the state of Washington: a 212-bed shelter in Seattle — a city ten times the size of Portland.

Why doesn’t Seattle have a larger shelter? Not because it doesn’t need it: some have speculated that Seattle is suffering from the most severe homeless crisis in the country.

No, Seattle doesn’t have a larger shelter because bigger isn’t always better. Larger shelters don’t produce better outcomes.

There are many things that make large shelters less effective. One basic problem is the internal environment: everyone — whether they suffer from substance use or mental illness, whether they are transgender or gay, whether they are young or old or infirm — is packed into the same gymnasium-sized room to sleep side-by-side.

There is hardly any privacy, and hardly any dignity. If anything, there is greater temptation to substance use or sex work.

And for drug dealers and criminals who prey on the homeless, a single, big-box shelter means a single target for their illicit affairs.

Larger shelters can also create more strain for staff: with so many people with so many different needs seeking help in a single location, social workers, mental health professionals and medical caregivers are often stretched thin.

We know what the right solution is: multiple, smaller shelters.

Last year, I joined Homeless Voices for Justice and many others to ask the City of Portland to build multiple, smaller, more targeted shelters across the city.

The “scattered site” model has many advantages over the “mega-shelter” model:

• Each shelter could be tailored to the unique needs of a different demographic (e.g. people with substance use issues, seniors, women, LGBTQ persons, etc.).
• Each shelter would be smaller (30–80 beds instead of 200) so could blend more easily into their neighborhoods.
• Multiple scattered shelters would be less of a target for drug dealers and criminals who prey on the needy than a single, centralized shelter.

Would it cost more money? Yes. But we’re talking about people’s lives here — both the lives of the homeless who are accessing these facilities, and the lives of the residents near the facilities.

Portland actually has a few such targeted shelters already, like the Preble Street Teen Shelter in Bayside or the Milestone Shelter on India Street for folks with substance use issues.

These shelters have proven to be highly effective, but they do not have the resources nor the capacity to adequately tackle homelessness on their own. The City of Portland has an opportunity to partner with these existing providers to augment their efforts with new shelter facilities.

New York City and other cities have already moved to the scattered site model. Portland should follow this best practice.

We should not repeat the mistake we made in Bayside by concentrating services in a single neighborhood, even if those services will be in a shiny new building.

We should not choose the least-effective option — the “mega-shelter” — because it has the lowest monetary cost. That will only perpetuate problems.

A failure to communicate

Throughout this process, the City of Portland has taken the wrong approach to communicating with the public.

Instead of creating opportunities for dialog with residents, stakeholders, experts and homeless folks, the City has treated this proposal as a fait-accompli that it must “sell” to the public.

For example, no one in Nason’s Corner even knew that the Barron Center site was being considered until the City announced that it would be recommended in June 2018. Residents were rightfully upset that there had not been any kind of public discussion about proposed sites.

There should have been discussions with the Nason’s Corner neighborhood — and every neighborhood under consideration — long before any site was selected.

Furthermore, I have spoken with a few healthcare providers in Portland who regularly work with homeless folks: they too have concerns and reservations about the “mega-shelter” proposal, but they are afraid to say anything publicly because they fear they will “lose their seat at the table.”

In other words, they fear that the City will punish them for speaking their mind.

This is not the way our city government should be conducting a public discussion about such an important issue. Professionals and experts should feel free to share their perspectives, even if they don’t agree with City Hall.

Mistakes have been made, but it’s not too late to change course

Whatever we decide to build, we will have to live with it for at least a generation. That’s why it’s so critical that we do it the right way.

That means multiple, smaller shelters — not a “mega-shelter.”

More information, and how to get involved

The City Council will be discussing the shelter proposal throughout September. Make your voice heard by calling and emailing the councilors, or by speaking at public comment at council meetings at 6pm.

Some residents of Nason’s Corner have compiled arguments opposing the proposed shelter at portlandshelters.org.

The Bayside Neighborhood Association has also compiled a wealth of information about the current Oxford Street Shelter and the proposed new shelter on their website.

The Nason’s Corner Neighborhood Association [Facebook] has been regularly sending out emails and posts with news and update.

Finally, sign up for email updates from District 1 Councilor Belinda Ray, chair of the Health & Human Services Committee, who has also shared a timetable of upcoming meeting dates and key votes.

Why I oppose the City’s “mega-shelter” proposal in Nason’s Corner. was originally published in Joey Brunelle for Portland City Council on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.