Who’s behind ‘The Maine Independent’ newspaper landing in voters’ mailboxes?
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Less than a month before the midterms, a large dark money group is sending copies of a partisan newspaper to thousands of Maine voters.
The Maine Independent is nondescript. Its masthead is plain in black and white. It includes crosswords and recipes among its 12 pages. But the paper has no explanation of who’s behind it, no statements about its mission, and no reason why it wound up on voters’ doorsteps.
Despite its moniker, it is far from an independent local news organization, both in its funding and its politics.
The paper is one of about 20 nearly identical publications created in swing states across the country over the last decade by American Independent Media, a subsidiary of a similarly named, large dark money group closely tied to Democratic super PACs, politicians and campaign operatives.
A screenshot from MaineIndependentNews.com
From Alaska to Florida, the American Independent Foundation has propped up outlets created to boost Democrats ahead of crucial state and federal elections. They present themselves as independent local news organizations, mailing 12 pages of ideologically slanted stories to voters who never subscribed to the outlet.
Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson “will fight for universal healthcare and lower drug prices,” one Maine Independent headline reads. “Susan Collins says she’s pro-choice, but her Senate votes helped end Roe,” says another.
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In addition to its printed paper, the outlet has reached hundreds of thousands of people through more than $47,000 worth of social media ads, according to the Meta Ad Library.
None of The Maine Independent’s content is flatly untrue or blatantly misleading. But all of their stories omit important nuance in support of Democratic politicians.
A copy of The Maine Independent, a faux-local newspaper being mailed to thousands of voters across the state seen at the Portland Press Herald office on Tuesday. (Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer)
“It’s an attempt to mimic journalism by providing information that might, in fact, be accurate, but is framed in a partisan manner,” said Michael Socolow, a journalism professor at the University of Maine and board member of the Maine Press Association.
The Maine Independent is one of many so-called “pink slime” news outlets established in Maine by both liberal and conservative dark money groups in the lead up to the 2026 midterm elections. The term, an allusion to ultra-processed meat products, is used in a news context to refer to outlets run by partisan interests posing as local and independent news.
NewsGuard, an organization that tracks misinformation and rates news outlets’ credibility, said American Independent Media and its local sites “generally fail to maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability” by infusing opinion into their reporting and failing to disclose the partisan interests behind the operation.
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“That’s what makes these publications so pernicious,” said Sam Howard, politics editor at NewsGuard. “They threaten to undermine what’s left of the trust that news consumers have in the media, particularly local media. Because these publications are framed as local, seemingly independent, seemingly nonpartisan publications.”
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Joe Conason, the Independent’s editor-in-chief, did not respond to interview requests or questions about their reach and operations in Maine.
SLIME-SWAMPED MAILBOXES
Mailing newspapers to voters en masse has been a hallmark of American Independent Media’s operation for years.
In 2021, the organization mailed papers to Virginia voters ahead of a tightly contested gubernatorial election. In the run up to the 2022 midterms, the Independent mailed faux-local papers to more than 2.5 million people in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, The Washington Post reported.
Ahead of this year’s midterms, they have has expanded to at least five more battleground states with pivotal Senate races: Florida, North Carolina, Iowa, Alaska and Maine.
A screenshot of a Facebook ad run by The Maine Independent.
Those state branches have each spent tens of thousands of dollars on social media ads, according to the Meta Ad Library. But their main business is still sending physical papers through the mail, according to Chiara Vercellone, a senior analyst at NewsGuard.
“They’re trying to prove their credibility, and we know that there’s a lot of junk out on the internet or on social media,” she said. “Creating a seemingly innocent-looking newspaper that people receive in their mails touts their supposed credibility.”
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American Independent Media micro-targets its print papers toward moderates and women in swing states, The Washington Post reported in 2022. At that time, the organization mailed monthly copies to some 3.2 million voters nationwide, making it one of the country’s largest print media operations.
Spreading pink slime through the mail could prove more effective in Maine than elsewhere, said Socolow. The state’s population of only 1.3 million residents is comparatively small and skews older, on average, than anywhere else in the country.
“People still read the newspapers that pop into their mailboxes,” Socolow said. “I think it’s a smart strategy to reach older people.”
THE OPERATION
The American Independent Foundation describes its mission in business and tax filings as spreading “increased public awareness of progressive values.”
Among the foundation’s owners are Conason, a longtime journalist and liberal commentator, and Matt Fuehrmeyer, former director of research for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Its media arm similarly has been run by Jessica Floyd, a longtime operative for Democratic campaigns and super PACs, and Ari Rabin-Havt, deputy director of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign.
Both organizations are tax-exempt nonprofits. The foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization, which are prohibited from political activity by law. American Independent Media, however, is a 501(c)(4) — meaning it has legal leeway to be more political.
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Neither group is required to disclose its donors or financial backers, placing them each in the realm of so-called dark money groups that are dumping tens of millions of dollars into Maine’s Senate race.
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Together, they operate The American Independent News, which acts as a national news source and syndicate for its local outlets’ content.
Both the foundation and its media arm have contracted with a number of progressive consulting firms and media groups, their tax filings show, including a marketing firm called Mission Control, which describes itself as “the most successful direct mail firm working in Democratic politics today” — hinting at the Independent’s mailing strategy.
Unlike many other pink slime outlets, The Maine Independent’s articles include real people’s bylines on their stories, many of whom were reporters at traditional newspapers prior to joining the partisan outlet.
But despite the dozens of Maine-centric stories the outlet has published, none of its staff appear to be based in the state.
Only a few of The American Independent’s reporters and editors have publicly available contact information. Neither they nor the publication’s general contact lines responded to questions about The Maine Independent or its parent organization.
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A GROWING ECOSYSTEM
The Maine Independent is not the only pink slime site created here by national partisan groups in the months prior to this November’s pivotal midterm elections.
Conservative dark money groups and super PACs have similarly established several outlets masquerading as local Maine news sources ahead of the November elections.
Those operations have primarily used social media as a means to spread their message. The Independent, however, is taking a markedly different approach by mailing printed copies directly to voters.
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It’s not uncommon for swing states to be inundated with political ads ahead of important elections. But Socolow, the UMaine professor, said the influx of misleading news outlets in Maine highlights how much stake national interests have in winning the state’s U.S. Senate race — and how they can use a shifting media ecosystem to do so.
“You would think you would see this kind of proliferation in a much larger audience area,” Socolow said. “But I think the reason that so many of them are here is that it’s cheap. We’re a small and easily influenced voter base, through social media and micro-targeting.”
Partisan news isn’t a new phenomenon, Socolow noted. Prior to the last hundred years or so, political parties often sponsored newspapers to toe the party line. Even today, local outlets like the Maine Beacon and Maine Wire are run with the stated goal of pushing particular political agendas.
What is new is national groups seeding swing states with slanted faux-local news, Socolow said. And with the advent of social media, those efforts have become more widespread than ever.
What remains to be seen, however, is how effective the strategy will be.
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Tagged: election 2026, maine politics
Dylan Tusinski is an investigative reporter with the Maine Trust for Local News' quick strike team, where his stories largely focus on money, drugs and government accountability. He has written about international. More by Dylan Tusinski
