Epiphany – Public Corruption Can Be Stopped

President Trump has brought to light, better than any, how bureaucracy run amok and failed accountability destroy a republic. They steal money, time, and integrity, push public corruption, destroy basic trust, and replace freedom with fear. He is righting the ship. In Maine, we need that epiphany.

In Isaiah 9:2, it says: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the shadow of death, a light has dawned.” That is a prophecy of Christ’s coming, humanity’s deliverance. It is also the definition of an “epiphany,” some new hope, a discovery, freedom in the face of fear.

In a simpler way, we all search – often only half knowing – for epiphanies in our own lives. We delight in discoveries, work hard to see hope when things get dark, and work not to be jaded. It can be tough.

In Maine, perhaps more than in other states, the rising tide of public corruption – leaders who are literally violating the law with abandon – is drowning the historic American (and Maine) default to hope.

Against the backdrop of insufferably high taxes (especially on property), everything is unaffordable (housing to energy), mammoth drug overdoses and trafficking (10,000 ODs annually), and failing schools, people falter. Told there is no hope, that their leaders are with them, they sigh, struggle, demoralized.

So bad is Maine’s public corruption that a state audit found $2.1 billion, or 4,500 contracts, were non-competed, sole-sourced, given by Democrats to Democrat friends and family. That’s how monopolies – deeply rooted public corruption – works. Those long in power abuse those not in power.

Worse, despite a crying need for deep-dive investigations into this political corruption, perhaps indictments of those involved, even of some Democrat legislators, nothing was done by Maine’s bought-and-sold Attorney General, in the pocket of the Maine Governor, ever-popular Democrat Janet Mills.

Reported incidents continue to pile up, have for years, accelerated by excess federal COVID money, given freely after 2020 to “migrant non-profits,” some seeking millions in MaineCare (Medicaid), overbilling but neither punished nor repaid, one allegedly tied to Somali paramilitaries. Many would distribute the money, like Chicago’s Boss Daley did patronage, then work to get recipients registered – as voters.

In another recent case, reminiscent of Chicago’s sanctioned public corruption in the 1920s, a leading Maine Senate member got $500,000 in a forgiven “loan” – for her three-person brewery business, after first getting thousands in PPP money. State investigation? No. Any of any Democrats for anything? No.

This is how public corruption roots and demoralizes people, gets people to play along, replaces hope with fear, and corrupts the whole culture, as it did in 1920s Chicago, has around the world, and does in the federal government – for which I did deep-dive investigations for five years. It is now afoot in Maine.

So, what is to be done? Because the apparent reach of public corruption is so wide and unattended in Maine, a place you would never expect to find it, and because it may involve violation of federal statutes, perhaps tie back to drugs, and clearly implicates state officials, the first stop for investigations should be the FBI, aided by DHS, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN), and possibly DEA.

Maine Democrats have controlled the government for 30 of 32 years, and seem to feel unreachable, invulnerable, untouchable – but that is also when politically corrupt individuals are most vulnerable. What we are seeing in Maine is sloppiness to Democrat corruption, since they will not be caught, and if caught, will be excused by some other Democrat in power, or the bright lights put out by intimidation.

Bottom line: Maine is due for an epiphany, a turning of the Big Wheel, a time when the public corruption is outed, investigated, and prosecuted, ends. New and high-integrity leaders are needed. Sometimes you have to do more than stir. You have to empty the pond, drain the swamp, and start again. Maine is there.

Time for an epiphany. When high-integrity leaders come along, things change. Those with a mind for relentless investigation, accountability, and able to sustain that standard, change everything.  Public corruption ends, and prosperity with trust begins. That is why I am running to be Maine’s next Governor.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!