Maine Education Association Caught Lying In New Mailer

V__4B7A The Maine Education Association, the largest teachers’ union in the state, recently sent out this mailer against Republican Jonathan Moynahan in House District 2, challenging Democratic incumbent Roberta Beavers. A similar cookie-cutter mailer was sent out in other districts.

The text proclaims that “Moynahan will side with Governor LePage” on certain issues, citing his Ballotpedia page as evidence. Ballotpedia is a free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, much like Wikipedia. This makes it completely unreliable to use as a source for anything. Moynahan’s Ballotpedia page doesn’t mention Governor LePage at all…nor does it mention any of the issues to which the above mailer refers.

The closest it comes is education spending generally, but it does not specifically mention Head Start. The other sources cited refer to things that Governor LePage has done, not things that Jon Moynahan has done. There were no articles in the Bangor Daily News or the Portland Press Herald that mentioned Moynahan on the dates cited.  While Governor LePage did veto LD 1120, since Moynahan is not an incumbent, he wasn’t present to vote on it. The MEA has no source for their claim that Moynahan will side with LePage on any of these issues.

They seem to be drawing that conclusion about his positions simply because he’s a Republican and LePage is a Republican. That, of course, is grossly unfair, and misleading to voters. If an organization is going to attack a candidate for their positions on something, they need to be able to cite their actual beliefs, not just their assumed beliefs based on political party.

This kind of blatantly false attack has no place in Maine politics, and the MEA owes Jonathan  – and the people of District 2 – a retraction and an apology.

Jim Fossel

About Jim Fossel

Originally from Alna, Jim Fossel has volunteered with a number of campaigns over the years, including for Peter Mills for Governor in 2006. He previously worked for U.S. Senator Susan Collins and House Republican Leader Josh Tardy.