Candidates for the Maine Legislature have to file personal financial statements ahead of the general election that disclose how they and their spouses make money. But in a quirk of state law, the same is not true for candidates running to be Maine’s next governor.
Personal financial disclosures are a common campaign finance requirement in states across the country that help voters assess public officials’ and candidates’ potential conflicts of interest. Maine law has required these statements — which provide insight into the income, debts and liabilities for officials and their direct family members — for legislative candidates since the early 1990s. The statements list each income source above $2,000 but do not provide specific dollar amounts. They must be filed by Aug. 15 ahead of the general election. The law also requires sitting lawmakers and top officials in the state executive branch to file them on an annual basis.
But in the governor’s race, the law requires only the winning candidate to submit this information after the general election has already taken place. They must do so within 30 days of their election.
Maine is one of only two states in New England, along with Connecticut, that do not require candidates for governor to provide some sort of personal financial disclosure ahead of the election. At the national level, presidential and vice presidential candidates are required to file a pre-election personal financial disclosure with the Federal Elections Commission, as are candidates for the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives who raise or spend more than $5,000.
The Maine Monitor reached out to the three current candidates for governor — independent Rick Bennett, Republican Bobby Charles and Democrat Hannah Pingree — to ask if they would provide their personal financial information voluntarily ahead of the election.
Bennett’s personal financial statement was already available because he is a sitting state lawmaker. Pingree agreed to provide the personal financial information, while Charles declined.
Bennett’s statement outlines multiple businesses and rental properties from which he generates income.
Despite previously serving as a prominent official in the administration of Gov. Janet Mills, Pingree had not been required to file a financial statement in that role. She provided the information voluntarily as requested by The Monitor.
Charles declined to provide his own personal financial disclosure, saying he hadn’t heard people raise this issue yet in the campaign and does not “see the value” of adding personal finances to the conversation at this point in the governor’s race.
The Monitor also asked the trio of candidates if they thought the rules should be changed going forward. All three candidates expressed some level of support for changing Maine law to require these personal financial statements from candidates for governor ahead of the election, rather than after it. Bennett and Pingree said definitively that they would support such a change as governor, while Charles said he likely would support it but would need to see bill language first.
Existing requirements
Current lawmakers such as Bennett need to file a personal financial disclosure statement by Feb. 15 each year with the Maine Ethics Commission detailing their sources of income from the previous calendar year. They are not required to provide specific monetary totals, but must include the name, address and type of income for each source that earns them $2,000 or more. They must also list compensation earned by immediate family members.
Lawmakers must also list any businesses with $2,000 or more in revenue that they or an immediate family member control more than 5 percent of outstanding equity in, and report gifts including travel expenses with a value greater than $300.
Members of the Maine Legislature must disclose any existing loans of more than $3,000 that they owe to non-family members, any transactions valued at $10,000 or more that they or immediate family members have with state entities, or positions that they or immediate family members hold in groups such as political committees, nonprofits or businesses.
State legislative candidates must submit the same information by Aug. 15. Sitting legislators don’t need to refile in August after already providing a personal financial statement earlier in the year.
Executive branch employees who are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Legislature, or those who are deemed in state statute to have significant policy-influencing roles, must file similar annual disclosures.
What we already knew about Bennett
Bennett’s existing financial statement from earlier in the year provides some insight into a collection of businesses that the former Republican-turned-independent is involved in, and properties from which he generates rental income.
He is the president and CEO of ValueEdge Advisors, a financial advisory firm. He also derives at least $2,000 in annual income from a professional and business services entity under his own name, and from Lewiston-based shoe manufacturer Quoddy, Inc. He serves on the board of directors for Biddeford-based internet provider GWI, and has rental income from two different properties.
Those properties are a Bryant Pond rental cottage and a commercial property that the disclosure indicates is used for “cannabis related production and sales.” For the cannabis-related rental, Bennett’s disclosure lists the revenue-generating entity as Winterberry LLC and the rental client as Great Falls Greenery LLC. A review of state, county and municipal documents shows that Bennett and his wife transferred ownership of a Mechanic Falls property to Winterberry, and that property is now home to medical and retail marijuana business High Rollers.
The Monitor asked Bennett to confirm that he derives rental income from a retail marijuana business, and asked if he has ever publicly acknowledged that in legislative debates related to marijuana policy at the State House.
“I derive passive rental income from a retail cannabis business,” Bennett responded in a written statement. “I haven’t otherwise disclosed because it is included in the financial disclosures.”
Bennett’s disclosure does not include income details for his wife, Karen Bennett, because she has retired from her career as an occupational therapist, he explained.
Bennett’s financial statement shows investment income administered by Portland-based firm Clearstead Trust. In addition to outlining sources of income, his disclosure also highlights his position as chair of the ballot question committee Protect Maine Elections, which worked to prevent foreign government spending in Maine elections.
What we learned about Pingree
Though state law requires many top officials in the executive branch to file personal financial disclosures, and Pingree was the director of the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future for several years before leaving last May ahead of her bid for governor, she was not required to file one in that previous role.
The Mills administration and Pingree’s campaign have frequently highlighted the policy work done in that office on issues such as housing and climate change, so it stands to reason that the director would be considered a “major policy-influencing position” under state law. But the ethics commission confirmed that the leader of the policy innovation office is not required to file personal financial disclosures under existing statute.
Pingree said this could be a case of state law not keeping up with the creation of new executive roles. She became the first-ever director of the office when Mills created it in 2019.
“I was fortunate to work collaboratively with many state agencies and leaders on significant policy and actions,” Pingree said in a written statement. “I was not required to file a personal financial disclosure. I assume the state statute just hadn’t kept pace with that reality.”
That also appears to be the case with the Maine Office of Community Affairs, created by the Legislature in 2024 to help local governments with climate resilience projects and regional planning, which is also not mentioned in the state statute governing executive employee disclosures and defining major policy-influencing positions.
Pingree said as governor she would support an update to include more executive roles as part of the disclosure requirement.
“I’d support updating the law so that GOPIF leadership is included among the positions required to file financial disclosure, and ensure other senior state agency officials are required to do the same,” Pingree said.
Pingree voluntarily provided personal financial information for this story, which outlines sources of income for her, husband Jason Mann, and one dependent child.
Pingree had no recent individual sources of income besides her state job, according to the information provided. She and Mann get shared rental income from a property they own together in Rockland, and derive interest and capital gains income from assets managed by The Vanguard Group based in Pennsylvania. A home mortgage through Camden National Bank is listed as the only liability in Pingree’s statement.
Mann’s individual sources of income are his role as executive director of North Haven Sustainable Housing in the island community where the family lives, along with more than $2,000 he makes from two different ventures as a documentary filmmaker — including a grant from the Independent Documentary Association.
Pingree’s financial info also lists a dependent child who made more than $2,000 annually working at The Landing Restaurant on North Haven, and notes that Pingree has held roles in political committees related to her bid for governor while Mann serves as a trustee for the Waterman’s Community Center in North Haven. Under state law, dependent children do not need to be named in these disclosures.
What we don’t know about Charles
Charles is the only one of the three candidates who has not yet publicly provided a personal financial statement, either to The Monitor or in a legislative filing.
“There are many important and timely issues being discussed as part of this campaign at the moment, and to my knowledge, no one has yet raised this one,” Charles said in a written statement. “While I am quite sure that my financial disclosure would be far less interesting than either of my very well-off, long-time politically connected opponents, I do not see the value of adding personal finances to the campaign discussion at this time.”
Charles has long-time political ties of his own, just at a different level of government. While Charles’ opponents have spent years in state government and have strong political connections in Augusta, Charles has spent much of his career cultivating political connections at the federal level.
In the absence of a personal financial statement that could provide insight about any sources of income that Charles has currently, biographical information and federal data offer a brief — if outdated — look at how he has made money in his career as a lawyer, bureaucrat and lobbyist.
Charles founded and served as president of a Washington-area consulting and lobbying firm, The Charles Group, LLC. He started that firm after several years working as a congressional subcommittee staffer and went on to spend two years in the State Department of President George W. Bush, according to biographical information on the Federalist Society’s website.
Lobbying report information from the website OpenSecrets and the U.S. Senate indicates that Charles had numerous lobbying clients between 2000 and 2016 across multiple sectors including defense, communications and government.
The OpenSecrets information, based on data from public congressional records, lists multiple lobbyists at the Charles Group over the years and does not show Charles personally having any lobbying clients after 2016. The Charles Group has maintained at least one lobbyist (not Charles) and one client through 2026, according to OpenSecrets, but appears to have been paid $0 by that client in both 2025 and 2026 data.
A LinkedIn account apparently belonging to Charles still lists him as president of the Charles Group, but it’s unclear when that was last updated. The Charles Group website is no longer active.
Charles, after spending years involved with lobbying at the federal level, has pledged to refuse campaign contributions from Maine lobbyists and lobbying firms — and called on Bennett and Pingree to do the same.
What lawmakers could do
Maine Ethics Commission Executive Director Jonathan Wayne told The Monitor earlier this spring that his office didn’t have a clear understanding of the legislative history that led to different requirements for legislative and executive candidates.
“I’m not sure why the Legislature made the policy judgment to require it of legislative candidates but not other candidates, but we have viewed this as a decision for Maine’s elected officials,” Wayne said in April. “And we have not really given thought to proposing an expansion of the reporting requirements.”
Wayne said it would not be administratively difficult for the commission if the requirements were expanded to include gubernatorial candidates. If such a change were to be proposed in the Legislature, Wayne said the commission would be neutral on it, as they are on many bills.
Elsewhere in New England, New Hampshire requires all candidates in the state primary election to file a statement of financial interests months before the September primary. In Massachusetts, candidates for both state and county office must file a statement of financial interest. Rhode Island requires candidates for elected office to file a financial disclosure statement within 30 days of filing to declare their candidacy. In Vermont, all candidates for non-federal statewide offices have to submit a financial disclosure form.
Connecticut is even more of an outlier than Maine, with its financial disclosure requirement applying only to current lawmakers and state officials, not candidates.
At least two of Maine’s current candidates for governor have clear positions about whether Maine should join the majority of New England states on this issue.
Both Bennett and Pingree unequivocally said they think these financial statements should be required for all gubernatorial candidates ahead of the election, and both said they would work to enact that change in Maine law if elected as governor. Charles indicated that he would likely support such a change as governor but would need to see the specific proposal before committing to it.
“Mainers deserve to know if their governor has financial conflicts of interest before they cast their vote, not after. I’m releasing a version of the same financial disclosure other candidates fill out and I’d encourage my opponents to do the same,” Pingree said. “If elected, I’ll work with the Legislature to put this requirement into law so every future gubernatorial candidate has to do the same.”
Bennett agreed, and pointed to other campaign finance reforms he has worked on in the Legislature, such as introducing legislation to “expose the true sources of campaign money and strengthen disclosure of lobbyist activity” along with bolstering transparency in the state contracting and procurement process.
“Candidates for governor should be required to file a personal financial disclosure statement before the election, not only after it. Voters should have this information before they cast their ballots,” Bennett said. “At a time when the two parties agree on very little, one thing their leaders seem to agree on is keeping sunlight off their own finances.”
Charles was less committal but said he isn’t opposed to requiring this type of disclosure from candidates for governor.
“Without seeing the wording of a specific bill, I generally have no objection to such a requirement,” he said. “As a lifelong crime fighter and federal prosecutor, I strongly support abiding by the law, whatever it may be. As governor, if the legislature passed such a bill, I would likely sign it, depending on the specific language.”
Maine Monitor government accountability reporter Josh Keefe contributed to this story.
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