From A.J. Higgins' story on yesterday's Ethics Commission hearing:

Lenardson maintains that Maine Leads is an advocacy group for citizen empowerment to fight for lower taxes. He says he was really trying to model other Democratic-leaning groups such as the Maine People's Alliance which have been successful in Maine.

"My job was, or my mission was, to build capacity," Lenardson said. "It was to be a place where other center-right groups could come together and to work on ideas and advance an agenda, whether it's day-to-day in the Legislature, whether it's working with local mayors in Waterville or Biddeford. It really is just strictly out of envy of how the left has organized."