Maine Dems allege in ethics complaint that GOP is spreading fake news

The Maine Democratic Party is alleging that the Republican Party in the state is spreading “fake news.”

The state’s Democratic party filed an ethics complaint Tuesday, according to the Sun Journal. In the complaint, the Democratic Party accuses Republicans of working together with a website called the Maine Examiner to spread fake news stories.

The Democrats are calling for Maine’s ethics commission to look into whether there are potential campaign finance violations by the site and the Republican Party in the state.

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“To put it plainly, this is the worst of politics: pushing misleading or outright false claims while hiding behind the safety of anonymity,” Maine Democratic Party Chairman Phil Bartlett said in a statement.

He said the Republican Party “decries fake news, but then happily turns around and peddles it to achieve their political goals.”

The Examiner — which started publishing in mid-September and does not provide information about its ownership or leadership — says it “may produce some news content that liberals and progressives don’t want you to read, but we get our facts straight and we provide the proof to back up our claims,” according to the Sun Journal.

The publication says it is made up of a “small group of Mainers who simply publish Maine news, trends and interesting pieces about you, the people of Maine.”

The site had published a series of stories last year about Lewiston mayoral candidate Ben Chin, who lost a close runoff election. The stories addressed topics such as internal Chin campaign emails and parking tickets that were not paid.

After the stories were published, the Maine Republican Party and its executive director, Jason Savage, shared them, according to the Sun Journal The Democratic Party raised concerns in the complaint about anonymous websites.

“In order to make judgments about the veracity and value of stories covering Maine candidates,” the complaint said, “Mainers must understand who is behind the communication.”

Bartlett called for “whoever is behind the Maine Examiner” to not “cower behind a mask of secrecy.”

“Mainers don’t hide their faces — they stand up, speak, and own their beliefs,” he said.

The state’s Republicans “should be upfront with the people of Maine and tell them whether or not they are purposefully using this bogus website to advance their partisan agenda,” he said.

The Maine Examiner has said that it will not be silenced and has vowed to continue publishing “fact-based content.”