Democrat Maine Senate leader, Mattie Daughtry (D-Cumberland) – Photo Credit | Troy R. Bennett / BDN
Public corruption is here. In Maine’s race for Governor, the entire Democrat caucus – Maine House Speaker and all Democrat gubernatorial candidates – condemned me for calling out a Democrat legislator with obvious split loyalties, Somalia, and hiding illegal aliens, not focusing on Maine concerns. The problem is bigger.
The existence of split loyalties – or conflicts of interest – is not just a matter of overlooking things or absence of focus on what matters, public safety, law enforcement, affordability, lower taxes, and reexamination of a failing educational system. It is a legal problem.
In Maine, unlike on the national level, Democrats have been in control for nearly 30 years. Their conflicts of interest – often with benefits flowing to Democrat-affiliated non-profits and individuals – are unchecked. When found, they are buried.
BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front): Democrat fury with my candidacy is not about who I am. They do not know me. They only know my record. It is about what I will do when I’m Governor. That terrifies them. It should.
Why? I am a lifetime pursuer of truth, seasoned congressional investigator, former federal litigator, flipper of stones, finder of bodies, who “made his bones” in intelligence, served at the highest levels, dismantling bureaucracies, hunted public corruption, and did criminal referrals for those gaming the system.
That is why they are so over the top. It does not take much digging to see why their fear is real and spiking. Beyond being a pursuer of public corruption and a leading candidate to win the Republican nomination, Maine Democrats showcase “split loyalties,” “conflicts of interest,” and “public corruption.”
Almost wholly undiscussed by Maine’s struggling media monopoly, the “National Trust for Local News,” a staggering number of public corruption issues rock Maine. Long hidden, a sequence of events is causing Mainers to see the legal jeopardy Democrat leaders are in.
Examples are everywhere. Maine Democrats have created a kingdom of self-dealing, protected by an untruthful governor, attorney general, and complicit legislative leadership, all of whom close ranks to shut down anyone shining light on their ideological, legal, procedural, and personal misdeeds.
Those who closed ranks on me, Democrat House Speaker Fecteau, Mills staffer Pingree, Democrat Secretary of State Bellows, and former legislator Jackson, are all Augusta swamp denizens.
They are panicked because Mainers are catching on. This self-dealing, conflicts of interest everywhere, and dishonest leadership not only indulges ideologically out-of-step ideas, things Mainers do not want, but also reflects something worse, classic public corruption.
Glaring examples, each needing deep investigation, include these.
One: The Somali-born Democrat legislator called out by me for split loyalties, conflicts of interest, and seeking to make Maine a sanctuary state – hiding illegal aliens from ICE – was part of a migrant-run “non-profit” audited by the state, under federal scrutiny back to 2022.
That “non-profit,” as reported in The Maine Wire, was under scrutiny for overbilling –$800,000 in “improper payments” for MaineCare, a 36 percent error rate – when Rep. Deqa Dhalac (D-South Portland), whom Democrats now fiercely defend, was the group’s Assistant Executive Director.
In March 2025, reports surfaced of a group leader’s possible ties to Somali paramilitaries, while in 2022, even the Portland Press Herald reported Dhalac’s group under federal scrutiny, “Four Portland home health agency managers charged with wage-fixing, anti-competition scheme.”
Dhalac listed that group as her employer in 2021, 2022, and 2023, and was then elected to the Maine House in 2022. Throughout, Maine’s Democrat attorney general looked away from the group’s unusual activities. Raise eyebrows? For this old investigator, it did.
Two: If all this does not spark interest, how about revelations last month that the Democrat Maine Senate leader, Mattie Daughtry (D-Cumberland), raked in a $500,000 taxpayer-funded loan (forgiven) to her three-person brewing company during COVID? That, after getting thousands in federal PPP money.
In a classic case of “nothing to see here,” the Democrat-controlled Finance Authority of Maine (FAME) refuses to tell Mainers who approved the forgiven half-million dollars to the top Senate Democrat. Smell odd to you? For this old investigator, it did.
Three: That shocking story is nowhere in the Maine Trust papers. Any surprise? Democrat Governor Mills reportedly paid $117,300 to the Maine Trust papers – “to publish state-sponsored articles praising the Mills Administration…”- and in no-bid contracts, like so many in Maine.
These are the same papers critical of me calling out public corruption, conflicts of interest, and split loyalties among top Democrats in Augusta. Any surprise? The last thing they want to see is me.
Four: Consider Maine’s shocking 2024 state audit, revealing $2.1 billion in non-competed, sole-source contracts, “a total lack of oversight for state spending and routine disregard for the rules,” many to Democrat friends and family, zero criminal referrals or indictments.
Systemic public corruption dogs Augusta, and this takes the cake, illustrating the open ocean – the Democrat web – of total disregard for law and accountability to average Mainers. So bold is the Democrat web of public corruption that, over the past six years, it has become “normalized.”
The problem is bigger than any one Democrat. Maine’s public corruption is systemic. Democrats are worried, because we are onto them – and they have reason to worry. We will stay on them.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!
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