Report: Maine's Majority Founder Quits

PORTLAND – The Portland Phoenix’s Jeff Inglis is reporting that Chris Korzen, the man behind MainesMajority.org, has quit the Portland-based non-profit group he started.

“Not sure who’s empowered to accept his resignation, but it’s as clear as day: Chris Korzen is leaving the Maine’s Majority group he founded,” Inglis wrote in a story on Tuesday afternoon.

“ BREAKING NEWS: Founder Chris Korzen ‘quits’ Maine’s Majority #mepolitics”

Inglis’s report includes a lengthy email exchange between Korzen and Inglis in which the latter man points out the hypocrisy of Maine’s Majority assailing former State Treasurer Bruce Poliquin for his use of a Freedom of Access Act (FOAA) request to acquire public records.

Korzen, an author and former labor organizer, had earlier issued a press release via MainesMajority.org alleging that Poliquin’s use of emails acquired through public records requests “constitutes a blatant abuse of the Freedom of Access Act.”

In the press release, Korzen quotes himself as saying, “Poliquin is clearly trying to set himself up for a future election bid, and he’s now using state resources to build his communications infrastructure. He should stop using this publicly-owned email list immediately.”

However, as Inglis points out, Korzen himself acquired emails through FOAA requests and subsequently used them for a personal purpose – which in this case was attacking a well-known Republican, the seeming mission of Maine’s Majority.

“Korzen thought he’d be cute when LePage won a 38 percent plurality in 2010, so he started a blog and made some bumper stickers around the idea that a majority of Mainers don’t like the Governor,” said Maine Wire reporter S.E. Robinson.

“Where was Korzen in 2006 when Baldacci won with only 38.11 percent of the vote? Baldacci never received a majority of votes cast,” Robinson said.

“You have to give him credit for jumping on an opportunity, but it’s a stretch to think that everyone who voted for Eliot Cutler, Libby Mitchell and Scott Moody invariably support Korzen’s brand of leftist politics,” said Robinson.

“He does a good job making promoting himself, but at the end of the day he’s a Big Labor shill quoting himself in the press releases he writes,” said Robinson. “Who does that?”

While it is unclear whether Korzen has actually resigned from his website – his Twitter feed has been oddly silent since Tuesday – Inglis certainly captures the hypocrisy of the attack on Poliquin.

“[Korzen] admits that he does not understand the difference between requesting public records from the government to use in a publicity campaign to promote a political perspective and, well, requesting public records from the government to use in a publicity campaign to promote a political perspective,” wrote Inglis.“He’s just sure that when he does it, it’s good, and when Bruce Poliquin does it, it’s bad.”

Read the entire exchange between Inglis and Korzen at  the Portland Phoenix’s blog.

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