The Maine Ethics Commission removed the video and livestream of a public proceeding after a commissioner mentioned the name of a person or business entity that the campaign finance regulator is investigating.

The highly unusual move came at the request of Stop the Corridor, a political group that opposes Central Maine Power’s controversial transmission project.

Stop the Corridor is also the subject of an ethics commission investigation to determine if entities working with the anti-corridor group should file as a political action committee and reveal funding sources.

Friday’s meeting was the second in the past week and was called because Stop the Corridor is protesting the commission’s subpoena for records. The majority of both meetings have been held in executive session, a closed-door proceeding that the commission uses to discuss information that it’s agreed to keep confidential in investigations.

In the case of Friday’s meeting, the commission returned from executive session to publicly discuss its next move. According to Ethics Commission director Jonathan Wayne, it was during that discussion that one of the commissioners “inadvertently referred to one of the confidential names.”

The commission’s decision to yank the meeting from public view was the second time in a week that it’s honored a request from an entity its investigating to keep secret something that might have been observed during an in-person meeting.

Last week, the commission agreed to conceal the identity of an attorney representing one of the entities its investigating after the attorney said they preferred to appear only in executive session, not the public proceeding.


Megan Diver

Megan has worked in Maine politics for more than ten years and all of her professional career, having served in many roles for elected officials (including former Secretary of State Charlie Summers), in-house with the Maine Association of REALTORS®, legislative specialist at Pierce Atwood LLP providing lobbying services and support to Pierce Atwood’s government relations clients and most recently senior government relations specialist at the Maine State Chamber of Commerce. Megan currently is the Vice President at the Maine Energy Marketers Association, utilizing her vast knowledge and legislative experience at the State House to represent MEMA on policies relating to the Association and its members.