Sara Gideon donates $3.5 million in leftover campaign cash to help low-income families

[George II]

The money, from her unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate, will go to the nonprofit Maine Equal Justice, which provides financial assistance to low-income parents earning degrees and professional certifications.

Sara Gideon has donated $3.5 million of leftover campaign funds from her unsuccessful U.S. Senate bid to help low-income parents earn degrees and professional certifications.

Gideon said in a written statement that the donation will allow Maine Equal Justice, a nonprofit civic legal aid and economic justice organization, to establish a new Build HOPE Project to help create pathways out of poverty for working parents and their children. The project will begin in January.

“This gift will provide immediate and significant support to working parents earning their degree, to their children – and ultimately to the entire state – by increasing the numbers of higher skilled workers badly needed by Maine’s employers and our economy,” Gideon said in a statement.

A spokesperson for Gideon said she was not available for an interview Wednesday. The former speaker of the Maine House of Representatives has kept a low-profile since the election loss in 2020 and had not spoken publicly about her plans for about $10 million in remaining campaign donations.

https://www.pressherald.com/2021/12/01/sara-gideon-donates-3-5-million-in-leftover-campaign-cash-to-help-low-income-families/

[YorkRd]

1. Really liked her and she seemed like a class act but she wasn't white enough for Maine.

[Celerity]

5. this certainly did not help:

https://www.rollcall.com/2019/04/11/democratic-sen-joe-manchin-endorses-gop-sen-susan-collins-for-2020/

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III endorsed Republican Sen. Susan Collins’ 2020 re-election bid Thursday, saying he would go to Maine to campaign for her if she asked.

“I would go up and campaign for Susan Collins,” the West Virginia senator said in an interview taped for C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers” that will air Friday. “For America to lose someone like Susan Collins would be an absolute shame. I feel that strongly about this lady.”

Collins is among the more vulnerable Republican senators up for re-election in 2020 as Democrats seek to capture the majority. Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates her race Tilts Republican. Though she does not yet have an opponent, Collins’ vote last year to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court led to the creation of a Crowdpac fund for her eventual Democratic opponent that has raised nearly $3.8 million so far to oust her.

Manchin, however, also voted for Kavanaugh, and the two have often worked together. They announced in 2017, for example, they would serve as co-chairs of No Labels, a bipartisan group that works to find middle ground on issues.

[bottomofthehill]

2. She had 13.5 million dollars left......

in a small state like ME she had that much money left.... there is just too much money in politics.

[happybird]

3. +1

[George II]

4. There is too much money. But even those members of Congress who rail against money in politics....

....are among those with the biggest war chests.