Coastal towns vote on Leonard Leo-backed fishermen advocacy group

MOUNT DESERT, May 29, 2025 - The Town of Harpswell said no, narrowly. But Swan’s Island voted yes to $7,500 on April 5.

The select board here voted no, and Trenton’s will decide in July.

A fishing lobbyist funded by ultra right wing money is going around to coastal towns asking for public support. The request is small, $5,000 the first year, but the goal was to get the endorsement from as many municipalities as possible, to demonstrate public validation.

Maine Public’s award-winning political reporter Steve Mistler warned of this in an article April 2 when he wrote, “Since its founding three years ago, the New England Fishermen's Stewardship Association has been a vocal opponent of offshore wind and relied on funding from a right-wing advocacy group connected to one of the most influential conservative activists in the U.S.

“Now, the fishermen's organization known as NEFSA is looking to diversify its revenue sources by asking coastal communities in Maine for financial support.”

Mistler added, “A municipal endorsement might be just as valuable to NEFSA as the money, giving the group additional clout in its advocacy efforts and possibly paving the way for more taxpayer funding.”

WBUR Boston broke the story last December of a $1.1 million donation to NEFSA from The Concord Fund, an organization — formerly called the Judicial Crisis Network — that's part of a sprawling network of nonprofits and foundations connected to Leonard Leo.

WBUR reported that these groups have taken in millions of dollars from anonymous donors and doled the money out to other organizations, effectively creating what Charlie Spatz of the Energy and Policy Institute called "a slush-fund for billionaires to push their interests."

On April 25, I published the entire article with permission from WBUR.

With Leonard Leo backing, New England offshore wind opponents gain strength

The select board here on May 19 voted 4-1 to reject NEFSA’s request for $5,000 after voters at the annual town meeting May 6 overwhelmingly disapproved of the funding.

Voters were not allowed to defund individual non-profits in the proposed funding for “social services” at the town meeting. But Gail Marshall, member of the Planning Board and Warrant Committee, employed a clever parliamentary maneuver and moved to amend the $177,248 total funding by exactly $5,000 and then explained her reasoning.

“The New England Fishermen’s Stewardship Association. Well, that sounds anodyne, but what that is is it's not a social service agency.

“It is a lobbying group. It is a political action group. It has existed almost exclusively in order to fight the development of any offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine.

“It is extremely well funded. It has three full-time employees. In 2025 it paid them $160,000 each.

“They show no evidence in their budget of providing any services to people in this community.”

She was followed by a speaker who did not identify himself in support of the funding.

David MacDonald, retired director of Friend of Acadia, agreed with Marshall that the town should support social services and not advocacy groups. He cited materials on NEFSA’s website which showed it is clearly an advocacy group “mostly at the federal level.

“I support the Natural Resource Council of Maine. I support Planned Parenthood. These are advocacy groups. You can support them or not. I don’t think the town ought to fund out of its tax dollars advocacy work at the federal level.”

You may watch a video of the discussion starting at 1:40.25 into the town meeting.

The overwhelming voice vote made it publicly difficult for the select board to fund NEFSA even though the citizens were technically voting on social services as a single expenditure.

Newly elected member Rodney King voted in favor of the funding, saying the information about NEFSA being a political action group was “misleading.”

King, who lives in Otter Creek and fishes for lobster out of Seal Harbor, did not return a call for explanation.

FOOTNOTE: There are many ways to support Maine’s fishing communities and their charitable efforts. During covid, I learned about the Maine Coast Fishermen Association, which has a specific program to feed Mainers with food insecurity.