Maine People's Alliance
| Maine People's Alliance | |
 | |
| Basic facts | |
| Location: | Portland, Maine |
| Type: | 501(c)(4) |
| Year founded: | 1982 |
| Website: | Official website |
The Maine People's Alliance (MPA) is a 501(c)(4) organization that advocates on public policy issues in Maine. As of July 2025, its website says the group is a "statewide grassroots movement for progressive social change." [1]
Background
The Maine People's Alliance was formed in 1982 as a 501(c)(4) organization[2]. As of July 2025, the MPA website says it is "dedicated to providing Maine people with the tools, knowledge, skills and opportunity to become involved in the decision-making processes that affect their lives."[1]
Leadership
As of July 2025, the following are leaders of the Maine People's Alliance:[3]
- Jesse Graham, co-director
- Amy Halsted, co-director
- Rachel Ackoff, campaigns director
Work and activites
Electoral activities and influence
Legislative activity
The Maine People's Alliance endorses candidates for statewide office and the legislature and publishes an annual scorecard evaluating members of the Maine State Legislature.[4]
Ballot measure activity
Overview of ballot measure support and opposition
You can send information about this influencer’s involvement with ballot measures to editor@ballotpedia.org.
The following table details Maine People's Alliance's ballot measure stances available on Ballotpedia:
Maine Paid Sick Leave Initiative (2020)
- See also: Maine Paid Sick Leave Initiative (2020)
In October 2018, the Maine People's Alliance (MPA) proposed the ballot initiative, which would have required employers to provide employees with earned paid sick leave at a rate of no less than 1 hour per 30 hours worked. Jennie Pirkl, organizing director of the Maine People's Alliance, said, "We’re still evaluating how best to achieve that goal, whether through a citizen initiative in 2019 or 2020, or through a legislative campaign. Submitting referendum language now preserves all of our options."[7] In 2019, the Maine State Legislature passed a bill to enact paid sick leave, which Gov. Janet Mills (D) signed on May 28, 2019.[14] MPA dropped the initiative thereafter.
Maine Question 1 (2018)
In October 2017, the Maine People's Alliance launched the campaign Mainers for Homecare to support a ballot initiative. The ballot initiative, titled Question 1, was defeated at the general election on November 6, 2018. Question 1 would have enacted a payroll tax and non-wage income tax to fund a program called the Universal Home Care Program. Mike Tipping, a spokesperson for the Maine People's Alliance, stated, "There are tens of thousand of people in Maine right now who require in-home care and aren’t able to access it. Too many Mainers are forced to quit their job to provide care or to let their loved ones suffer or send them to a facility where they don’t want to be. This would attempt to address that."[15]
Notable endorsements
This section displays endorsements this organization made in elections within Ballotpedia's coverage scope.
Affiliates
MPA's 501(c)(3) affiliate, the Maine People's Resource Center, was created in 1984 by MPA leadership.[16] As of July 2025, the MPRC website says it has "recruited and trained thousands of grassroots leaders, and educated hundreds of thousands of Mainers about legislative and ballot initiatives and the importance of voting to make their voices heard.[17]
Finances
The following is a breakdown of the Maine People's Alliance's revenues and expenses for the 2020 to 2023 fiscal years, according to documents submitted to the Internal Revenue Service and compiled by ProPublica:
| Annual revenue and expenses for the Maine People's Alliance, 2020–2023 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Tax Year | Total Revenue | Total Expenses |
| 2023[18] | $4,458,381 | $1,804,131 |
| 2022[18] | $4,156,128 | $4,083,332 |
| 2021[18] | $1,912,467 | $1,424,924 |
| 2020[18] | $3,524,157 | $2,606,833 |
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'Maine People's Alliance'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- What is an influencer?
- Maine Question 1, Payroll and Non-Wage Income Taxes for Home Care Program Initiative (2018)
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Maine People's Alliance," "About Us," accessed July 25, 2025
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedAbout< - ↑ "Maine People's Alliance," "Staff," accessed July 25, 2025
- ↑ "Maine People's Alliance," "Issues," accessed July 25, 2025
- ↑ Maine Ethics Commission, "Restore Maine History," accessed December 21, 2023
- ↑ Maine Ethics Commission, "Our Power," accessed December 21, 2023
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Portland Press Herald, "Backers of failed Question 1 now turn toward paid sick leave," November 7, 2018
- ↑ Portland Press Herald, "Maine People’s Alliance launches in-home care referendum drive," September 27, 2017
- ↑ Mainers for Healthcare, "About," accessed September 11, 2017
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Maine Commission on Government Ethics and Election Practices, "Ballot Questions," accessed December 26, 2016
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedSupport - ↑ Portland Press Herald, "Mike Tipping: ‘Yes’ on statewide Question 1 would clean up a dark, off-the-books corner of Maine politics," October 31, 2015
- ↑ Maine Insights, "People’s Veto officially placed on November ballot," September 8, 2011
- ↑ WMTW, "Gov. Mills signs paid sick leave bill into law," May 28, 2019
- ↑ Bangor Daily News, "Progressives want Maine to vote on another tax hike. This time it would pay for home care," September 27, 2017
- ↑ Maine People's Resource Center, "Home," accessed July 25, 2025
- ↑ Maine People's Resource Center, "Home," accessed July 25, 2025
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 " "Maine People's Alliance," accessed July 22, 2025
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