A filing made yesterday with the Federal Election Commission and published by the FEC today shows that the 501c4 corporation Americans Elect has flooded the state of Maine with $89,695.10 more in funding to support the U.S. Senate campaign of Angus King. This money comes from three very, very wealthy men who made fortunes on Wall Street. None of them live in Maine. Not one of the rank-and-file Americans Elect delegates, who were told they’d have their voices heard in choosing candidates, was informed of this Americans Elect decision or offered the opportunity to participate in a vote on the matter.
Americans Elect continues to insist in the Kennebec Journal that Americans Elect and Angus King are operating utterly independently of one another. But one of the three men funding Americans Elect’s current efforts is the billionaire Michael Bloomberg. The Kennebec Journal reports that Angus King is headed to Michael Bloomberg’s upscale Manhattan home for a fundraiser.
In that same newspaper article, Americans Elect spokeswoman Ileana Wachtel insists that the primary purpose of Americans Elect is not to support Angus King, even though that has been its only action since shutting down its presidential bid in the Spring. Wachtel says that the “group’s primary activity remains attempting to open up the political process and ballot access.”
But if Americans Elect is really all about “attempting to open up the political process and ballot access,” why is Americans Elect sending out termination letters cancelling its ballot access in multiple states and threatening lawsuits if anybody tries to run candidates on any remaining Americans Elect party lines?
