3/30/18, Maine First Media Staff Report,

Witnesses on the floor of the Maine House of Representatives were shocked by what they saw Thursdayat the swamp of Augusta.

But first, the backstory.

The Marxist Pedophile Authority (or as they call themselves, the Maine People’s Alliance) raised and spent large sums of out-of-state dark money to gather enough signatures to put so-called, “Universal Homecare” on the ballot.

As Maine First Media discovered in an investigative report, MPA’s r...

Since this is a “citizens’ initiative,” the legislature has very few options at their disposal — in fact, they only have four:

• Forego the public vote and enact as is;
• Pass a competing measure to appear on the ballot alongside the citizen initiative;
• Send it directly to the ballot for voters to decide on;
• Refer the bill to committee for public hearings before sending to the voters.

However, lawmakers cannot make any changes or offer any amendments to the referendum. The purpose of the public hearings would only be to inform the public about the initiative and to give Mainers the opportunity to speak out for or against it.

Since voters will only see a short summary of the bill on the November ballot, House Republicans argued the 11-page bill needs to be fully vetted by proponents and opponents subject to questioning by committee members.

Otherwise, Maine voters — most of whom won’t research referendum questions on their own — will have to rely on information from yet another dishonest referendum campaign financed by dark money from out of state.

On Thursday, a motion was made to send the citizen-initiated bill to the Joint Standing Committee on Taxation for public hearings.

A roll call vote was requested by minority leader Rep. Ellie Espling, and held open by Speaker pro tem Rep. Erin Herbig for at least 20-Minutes. This is an abnormally long duration for a roll call vote.

At this point, 72 members were voting to support the motion for a public hearing on MPA’s “citizens’ initiative” while 71 members were voting against it.

However, the vote was still not called.

Instead, several sources have verified Democrat leadership could be seen working the phone and passing notes to whip their members.

Democrat Rep. Cathy Nadeau of Winslow initially voted for the motion with her green light on full display. Rep. Nadeau was on the receiving end of the Democrat whip effort.

Two Republican House members tell Maine First Media they even sent Rep. Nadeau a note thanking her for putting the public before party on this occasion. One of the Representatives thanking Rep. Nadeau was Rep. Beth O’Connor of Berwick, who says her message of good will apparently was not enough.

“I sent her a note 5-Minutes before she flipped her vote,” Rep. O’Connor said. “The note said, ‘thank you, Cathy, for voting to reference this for a hearing and preserving the integrity of this body.'”

But eventually, Rep. Nadeau would flip her vote to “nay.” Immediately after, Speaker pro tem Herbig closed the roll call.

“I looked at Speaker pro tem Erin [Herbig], and she was looking at Cathy,” Rep. O’Connor said. “Cathy was looking at her. Erin bent over to drop the board. Cathy flipped her vote. Erin dropped the board.”

According to Maine-First Rep. Larry Lockman of Amherst, without a majority, the motion failed.

“Maine families were denied an opportunity for a public hearing,” Rep. Lockman said. “And dark money organizations like the Marxist Pedophile Authority continued their control over Maine’s Democratic Party. The MPA is the tail that wags the Democrat donkey in Maine politics.”

As soon as the vote was closed, Rep. Nadeau was seen fleeing the chamber.

“Cathy got up and left the chamber and appeared to be crying,” Rep. O’Connor said.

Several sources at the floor vote have told Maine First Media the exact same facts about the incident.

Rep. Nadeau was not present for the next vote on a motion to “indefinitely postpone” (send directly to the ballot).  With Rep. Nadeau absent, the motion to advance directly to voters passed.

It appears Democrat leadership is so eager to please the Marxist Pedophile Authority; they’re willing to use their infamous bully-tactics on their own members. And why, for daring to think for themselves on a single vote. It appears as though Rep. Nadeau received the message loud and clear what happens when you buck the Democrat party-line.

Thanks to Rep. Nadeau’s flipped vote, Mainers are now robbed of an opportunity for a public hearing. MPA’s union hierarchy slush fund will go directly to the ballot. And millions of dollars will be spent by Leftists from across the country to mislead Maine voters about the true nature of the slush fund.