Community Values

Who is the Maine People’s Alliance?

The Maine People’s Alliance is our state’s largest community action group. We have 32, 000 members in almost every town in Maine. Since 1982, MPA members have worked on dozens of local, state and national campaigns. From holding corporate polluters accountable, to demanding affordable housing reforms, to organizing for universal health care, to standing up for human and civil rights, MPA members have joined neighbors and friends to stand up for the kind of world in which we want to live. At the heart of all of our work is our vision for our stat and our nation. We are building communities where people feel shared responsibility for a better future and nobody is forced to make unfair decisions in a struggle to provide for their family; where businesses are accountable to everyone they affect; where communities celebrate everyone rather than draw lines between us; and where government is seen as an essential tool for making decisions together about what is best for our common interests. We believe that we are stronger when we work together than when we try to go it alone.

What are Maine Values?

The Maine People’s Alliance has always believed that Maine people should know how elected officials are voting on issues that affect their daily lives. But just as important as the votes cast on individual issues, Mainers also want to have a sense of the underlying values that our elected officials are demonstrating through their votes - and whether these values match our own. Most Mainers have a core set of beliefs - a world view - that influences the decisions we make for our communities and our state. The 32,000 members of the Maine People’s Alliance share a set of beliefs that guide all our campaigns - from working for universal single-payer health care, to protecting the environment and public health, to ensuring livable wages and affordable housing for all Mainers. The key values that are held by most Mainers and which inspire each of our campaigns include:

Community: We are stronger when we work together than when we go it alone.

When some among us suffer, we are all worse off. Mainers have never tolerated the suffering of any residents of our state and we have a long history of joining together to ensure the safety and security of our neighbors - whether facing natural disasters like ice storms and floods, or man made crises like prescription drug prices and health insurance costs. Part of our commitment to building strong communities is our belief in a role for government - a government that operates “of the people, by the people and for the people,” and one that is free from the influence of corporate interests and serves the common good. We know that government can only be effective when the majority of people participate in civic life by voting and making their voices heard in the decision-making forums that affect their lives.

Investing in the Future: We have a shared fate and a responsibility to future generations.

We have a responsibility to our kids and our grandkids to leave them a sustainable nation - a nation that maintains strong public programs that provide safety nets for people going through tough times; a nation whose workers share in the wealth they help generate. Mainers have always understood the importance of making decisions today that will benefit people tomorrow. The investments Maine has made in the funding of public education reflect Mainers’ commitment to investing in the young people who will someday be the engine of Maine’s economy and the leaders of Maine’s communities. Maine’s first-in-the-nation toxic use reduction laws prove that Mainers won’t wait until others take action when it comes to preventing toxic chemicals from having long-term effects on our ecosystems and our bodies. Mainers have repeatedly rejected tax reforms like TABOR that may have limited taxes in the short term, but that would have slowly destroyed the infrastructure that keeps our communities strong for the future.

Fairness, Equality & Justice: Everyone deserves the same opportunities to live with dignity and respect

Nobody in this nation should be forced to make unfair decisions in the struggle to provide basic needs for their family; no person should be denied health care, housing, education or employment based on whether they are rich or poor, immigrant or native, white or black, gay or straight, and so on. Mainers passed the nation’s first comprehensive Clean Elections law because we saw that special interests and big business were making it hard for everyday people to run for office and make decisions based on what was right for their communities instead of listening to whoever financed their campaigns.

Are they voting our values?

To help you determine to what degree your Senator and Representative shares these important values, we compile a Community Values Scorecard each session, consisting of bills voted on during that session of the Maine Legislature. Taken together, the votes cast on these bills can tell us a lot about the commitment our legislators have to community values, investing in the future and ensuring equal opportunities for all Mainers. For information on all bills considered by the legislature, visit: http://janus.state.me.us/legis/lawmakerweb/search.asp.