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.

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Chapters:

00:00:45 – Full Disclosure: Why Chad Broke His Own Rule

00:01:47 – Rick Bennett: From Republican Senate President to Independent Candidate

00:03:25 – Maine's Political Tradition & The Affordability Crisis

00:04:47 – Cara's Origin Story: How the Spoiler Problem Led Her to RCV

00:06:20 – Independent Governors in Maine: It's Been Done Before

00:08:03 – Spoiling for Whom? The Whole System Is Corrupt

00:09:48 – Beyond RCV: Inspector General, No-Bid Contracts & the Public Purse

00:13:19 – Should the Secretary of State Be Nonpartisan?

00:15:32 – Super PAC Reform & The First Circuit Court Fight

00:19:35 – The California Initiative That Could Work in Maine Too