The Press Herald has but once again been duped into quoting a left-wing astroturf group that purports to represent Maine tiny companies.

The so-known as “Maine Smaller Business enterprise Coalition” sounds like a group that represents Maine tiny companies. If you only study the Press Herald, you likely believe that is what it is.

But according to records from Maine’s Secretary of State, the “coalition” is really an assumed name registered to the Maine People’s Alliance, a left-wing nonprofit funded by international dark income.

Press Herald reporter Joe Lawlor credulously quotes “Selecca Bulgar-Medina, director of the Maine Smaller Business enterprise Coalition” in his story on the push for new taxes to fund a state-run paid leave system in Maine.

Press Herald reporter quotes fake small business advocate

A cursory use of Google search would have revealed that Bulgar-Medina’s fake small business group is headquartered at 565 Congress St., Suite 200. Portland, Maine 04101.

That just takes place to be the precise address and workplace suite of the Maine People’s Alliance and a host of other liberal front groups.

Such a search would have also revealed that Bulgar-Medina has never ever run a tiny small business in Maine or anyplace else.

A short evaluation of Maine campaign finance would have also shown the Bulgar-Medina is listed as a “decision maker” and “fundraiser” for a Maine People’s Alliance-backed ballot query committee to advance the paid leave tax.

Political groups produced by operatives to seem like they are “grassroots” organizations are recognized as astroturf.

The Maine Wire has reported on the Maine People’s Alliance‘s deceptive use of astroturf because 2013.

For much more than a decade, distinctive causes, funded by dark income contributions, have applied the name “Maine Smaller Business enterprise Coalition” to give the look that tiny companies help left-wing policies, which invariably suggests larger taxes.

All through that time, Maine’s liberal newspapers have either been complicit in the deception or as well lazy to query the motivations of the individuals they’re quoting.

The citation in this instance is especially egregious taking into consideration that the Maine People’s Alliance was the group that organized tens of activists to turn out in help of the paid leave tax bill throughout the committee hearing for the bill.

Maine campaign finance records show that “Mainers for Paid Leave BQC,” the principal political group backing the ballot initiative, is also registered to the very same workplace suite in Portland.

Lawlor is efficiently quoting a paid political operative, who is funded by international billionaires, and participating in the fiction that she is somehow a representative of all Maine tiny companies.

Press Herald readers would have no way of understanding, primarily based on the lack of disclosure, that Bulgar-Medina, the ballot query operatives, the Maine People’s Alliance activists (which includes State Sen. Mike Tipping), are all functioning the very same group and are paid by the very same collection of dark income donors.

These donors incorporate billionaires like George Soros and S. Donald Sussman, former owner of the Press Herald, who give to Arabella Advisors, a left-wing pass by way of organization.

[RELATED: Swiss Billionaire Funds Tax-the-Rich Liberals in Maine…]

Connected Press reporting earlier this year revealed that Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss is also amongst the left-wing donors whose income has discovered its way into Maine politics vis-a-vis Maine People’s Alliance and other groups.

To place this in terms even a Press Herald reporter could fully grasp: this would be like Exxon Mobil forming the “Maine Environmentalist Coalition” and then lobbying for larger taxes on wind energy and solar energy.

If that sounds stupid, it is for the reason that it is.

You’d have to be a genuine rube to invest in an apparent political deception like that.