Americans Are Leaving the Two Parties Faster Than the System Can Trap Them

Rick Bennett climbed to the top of Maine's Republican Party - President of the Senate - and now he's running for governor without a party at all. His reasoning is blunt: the parties themselves are a major reason government stopped working.

Chad and Cara sit down with the independent candidate for Governor of Maine to talk about why a lifelong Republican with the credentials to play the party game decided to walk away from it. Rick lays out Maine's affordability crisis, the endorsements rolling in from Republicans, Democrats and independents alike, and why he thinks the "spoiler" question is the wrong argument entirely. From there it goes places most election-reform conversations don't: no-bid contracts, a state auditor's report on MaineCare violations, spending up nearly 80% in a decade, and a legislature that hasn't held a public hearing on the budget in six years. Then Cara and Rick get into the federal lawsuit they're both intervening in - and what the other side actually argued out loud in front of the First Circuit.

This episode is sponsored by the Independent Voter Project and produced by Olas Media. Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

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Episode Highlights

On this episode of the Independent Voter Podcast, hosts Chad and Cara sit down with Rick Bennett, the independent candidate for Governor of Maine and former President of the Maine Senate, who explains why he left the Republican Party to run: "the parties are a major contributor" to government dysfunction and voter disillusionment.

Bennett points to Maine's history of electing independents statewide, citing Jim Longley in the 1970s and Angus King, under whom Bennett served as Senate president during a tied chamber that ran on a power-sharing agreement. He argues the real "spoiler" isn't a third candidate but a two-party system he calls corrupt and rotten.

Cara recounts how her work on a three-way Maine gubernatorial race over a decade ago, and being told daily that her candidate would "spoil" the election, led her to discover ranked choice voting and eventually help bring it to Maine, though it still hasn't been extended to the general election for governor.

Bennett lays out a good-government platform beyond election reform: creating an inspector general's office, ending no-bid contracts, and responding to a state auditor's report on MaineCare violations. He notes Maine spending has risen nearly 80% in a decade and that the legislature hasn't held a public hearing on the budget in six years.

The conversation turns to nonpartisan election administration, with Bennett endorsing a proposed California constitutional amendment (referenced via Shawn Griffiths' reporting) making the Secretary of State a nonpartisan office, and revealing that Maine still has its legislature elect the Secretary of State, Attorney General, and Treasurer.

Cara discloses that she and Bennett are co-interveners in a First Circuit Court of Appeals case defending Maine's super PAC contribution limits, a 2024 ballot measure passed by 75% of Maine voters capping contributions at $5,000. Both describe the opposing side's oral argument, claiming no corruption or appearance of corruption exists, as strikingly weak.

Bennett details a prior Maine ballot measure he chaired banning foreign government spending in state elections, which passed with 86% support in 2023, the highest percentage ever recorded on a Maine ballot, before immediately being challenged in court.

Chad closes by pitching a California ballot initiative he and Cara are working on that would bar excluding voters from public elections based on party preference, and Bennett responds by endorsing an Alaska-style open primary with ranked choice voting as a model Maine should adopt.