First impressions were all about political party affiliations. She is a Dem, same as a Rep, to me. 

I started to look at the folks who were not DorR, but remembered you were asking for my opinion of her, so I looked at her critically.

Of the options available, I would choose differently.

Specifically, I would follow up on this:

• She is definitely a machine person.

  • But, she does stand out re: getting taken to the US Supreme Court

    • Trump won, but her grounds and stamina speak highly who she is. I liked that.

      • It didn't hurt being a Dem for this, but it was her personal choice re:POV that brought her to that decision, I think.

• Her credentials are strong, me thinks.

  • I think what must be attractive is that she played a role in Education and was an ED for awhile.

  • She has her own media/consulting firm, therefore, she is professionally savvy.

  • Middlebury College 

    • Pros: one of the 10% who applied and was accepted

      • Rigorous education, me thinks.

      • Connections are bountiful

      • High level of privilege 

    • Cons: Way to much privilege and ended her education there.

• She is a politicitian

  • ACLU credentials…

  • She has been paying her dues and it's working

    • That is a +/- it's a matter of one's POV

      • For me it's a minus.

        • Change is never coming from someone in that position.

        • She is an insider, her rhetoric screams that, AI content before AI…

        • I really question her understanding of current issues, largely due to  her corporate voice of lobbyist from the progressive family.

• Proponent of RCV

  • Big plus in my book BUT:

    • She is involved, just deciding a few weeks ago, to do the political math and is corrupting the RCV paradym which is not to win with a machine, but to be effective in having independents actually have a real chance in winning with out the machine and party line.

OK, so what does that mean to me…. ( you asked )

The person whom she is trying to beat is extremely aligned with her on all of the issues I learned. So why not vote for her, instead vote for him?

• For me, it's the gender issue.

  • For me, the display of pronouns in a person's signature line is like being different, as in a teenager wearing the clothing or whatever "the group" has for a symbol that they ain't like their adults.  They are right, they are not yet adults. Political adults, in my POV, are those above 30 years old. As their own POV's have been kicked around enough, their real "me" evolves to what is actually important enough to have "skin in the game" over. 

  • She has all of the markings of saying the so called right things. It happens to be contrary to my understanding of the issue.

  • The "book" "TMI" that follows articulates my POV pretty well, AI, as a tool, really helped me here.

• Gender... really?

• That shall not be included below, but when thought about critically with a historical POV,  yes.  It's simply a trojan horse of a different color.  It is the same as why Corporations are People. Just ain't right... for me.

Closing, except I do invite you to read what follows, 

I would vote for the current most favored to win candidate. 

He is as good example as I can think of for building a world Aaron Swartz would want to live in. Today the tools for making sure the lobbiests are not drownding out real thoughtful discernment of the fundamentals of an "issue" are unavailable when we are sleeping. The Smart Phone can be used to answer "Why is this an issue?" Not using it, for what ever reason is to not take the time to provide a better future for Our children. That is the job.

Gemini

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Conversation with Gemini

Learningworks 190 Riverside Street, Unit 6B Portland, ME 04103

That is the main address for LearningWorks, a non-profit educational organization based in Portland, Maine. They specialize in providing free, community-based learning programs for children, adults, and families who fall outside traditional educational frameworks. 

LearningWorks

Here is a quick overview of what they do and how to reach them at that location:

Contact & Location Details

• Address: 190 Riverside Street, Unit 6B, Portland, ME 04103

• Phone: (207) 775-0105

• Email: info@learningworks.me

Core Programs

The organization operates three primary signature programs across Southern Maine: 

LearningWorks

• LearningWorks AfterSchool: Provides free, hands-on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) and literacy academic enrichment for elementary students performing below grade level. 

• LearningWorks

• LearningWorks YouthBuild: A paid training program for young adults (ages 16–24) who have struggled with traditional high school. It helps them earn their high school equivalency (HiSET) while learning vocational skills in culinary arts or construction.

• Service Works: An alternative sentencing and restorative justice program that connects youth in the juvenile justice system with mentors and community service projects. 

• LearningWorks

If you are looking to get in touch with a specific department, register a student, or make a donation, you can reach out via their main line or drop off correspondence at the Riverside Street office.

financial

According to the most recent IRS Form 990 filings for LearningWorks (EIN: 01-0353682), the organization operates as a fully transparent 501(c)(3) public charity with independent financial audits. 

Charity Navigator

The baseline breakdown of their annual financial profile reveals how they generate and allocate their funds: 

ProPublica

Financial Health Overview

LearningWorks typically manages an annual operating budget of roughly $2.5 million to $2.75 million.

Metric

Recent Annual Figures

Total Revenue

~$2,753,000

Total Expenses

~$2,751,000

Total Assets

~$1,828,000

Total Liabilities

~$621,000

Where the Money Comes From

Unlike some nonprofits that rely heavily on program service fees or merchandise, LearningWorks relies almost exclusively on funding injections to keep its community programs free. 

ProPublica

• Contributions & Grants (98%+): The vast majority of revenue is generated through government grants (federal, state, and local education funds), corporate sponsorships, foundational grants, and individual donations. 

• ProPublica

• Investment Income (less than 1%): Modest returns from their cash and investment holdings. 

• ProPublica

Executive Compensation & Accountability

Charity Navigator notes that LearningWorks maintains excellent internal financial controls, including a robust document retention policy and zero material diversion of assets. 

Charity Navigator

For leadership, the Executive Director's compensation rests right around $111,000 per year, which is highly standard and modest for a regional nonprofit managing a multimillion-dollar budget and multi-county operations. 

ProPublica

Shenna Bellows

Shenna Bellows is a prominent American politician and civil rights advocate who currently serves as the 50th Secretary of State of Maine. Taking office in January 2021, she is the first woman to hold the position. 

Maine Democratic Party+ 1

Before stepping into her current role, she actually served as the Interim Executive Director of LearningWorks from 2015 to 2016, bridging the gap between her early career in advocacy and her time in the Maine State Senate. 

BallotReady

Her career spans public service, civil rights leadership, and a run for higher office:

Key Roles & Career Highlights

• Maine Secretary of State (2021–Present): Elected by the state legislature, she serves as Maine's chief elections officer and head of the Department of the Secretary of State. 

• BallotReady+ 1

• 2026 Gubernatorial Candidate: She is currently running in the June 2026 Democratic primary election to succeed the term-limited Governor Janet Mills. Campaign finance disclosures show her campaign holding roughly $367,000 in cash on hand heading into the final stretch of the primary. 

• Wikipedia+ 2

• Maine State Senate (2016–2020): Represented District 14, serving as the Senate Chair of the Labor and Housing Committee. 

• Maine.gov

• Civil Rights Advocacy: Spent eight years (2005–2013) as the Executive Director of the ACLU of Maine, leading major public campaigns on voting rights, privacy, and marriage equality. 

• Wikipedia

National Attention

Bellows drew significant national media coverage in December 2023 when she issued an administrative ruling that former President Donald Trump was ineligible for Maine’s primary ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. That decision was later unanimously blocked and overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in March 2024, which ruled that enforcement authority regarding federal candidates rests with Congress rather than individual states. 

Wikipedia

what was her arguement re:trump

When Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows disqualified Donald Trump from the state's primary ballot in December 2023, her decision was anchored in a multi-layered legal argument. Because Maine law requires the Secretary of State to personally rule on voter challenges to a candidate's qualifications, she was legally forced to act as the primary adjudicator. 

CBS News

Her core legal and factual arguments were broken down into three key areas:

1. The Statutory Argument (Maine State Law)

Bellows argued that her hands were tied by Maine's specific election statutes. Under Maine law, any candidate running for office must sign a candidate consent form declaring under oath that they meet all legal qualifications for the office they are seeking.

• The "False Statement" Claim: Bellows argued that because Trump signed this form asserting he was qualified to be president, but was actually disqualified by the U.S. Constitution (via the 14th Amendment), his candidate declaration contained a false statement.

• Under Maine code, if a declaration is found to be false during an official challenge, the Secretary of State is legally required to declare the primary petition void and remove the name from the ballot.

2. The Constitutional Argument (The 14th Amendment)

Her ruling relied directly on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment (the "Insurrectionist Clause"), which bars anyone from holding office who took an oath to support the Constitution and then "engaged in insurrection or rebellion" against it. 

Forbes

• Applicability to the President: Trump’s legal team argued that Section 3 does not explicitly mention the presidency (it mentions "Senator or Representative" and an "officer of the United States"). Bellows rejected this, ruling that the presidency is fundamentally an "office... under the United States" and that the clause applies to the nation's highest position.

• Self-Executing Nature: She argued that the 14th Amendment is "self-executing," meaning it automatically disqualifies someone the moment they commit the act, requiring no prior criminal conviction or act of Congress to take effect.

3. The Factual Argument (Defining "Insurrection")

To apply the 14th Amendment, Bellows had to make a formal factual determination regarding the events of January 6, 2021. Based on the evidence presented during her office's administrative hearing, she concluded: 

Forbes

• An Insurrection Occurred: She formally ruled that the attack on the U.S. Capitol met the legal definition of an insurrection—a violent, coordinated effort to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. 

• Forbes

• Trump "Engaged" in It: Bellows famously wrote that the evidence showed Trump was well aware of the political tensions built up over a multi-month effort to delegitimize the 2020 election, and then "chose to light a match." She argued that his rhetoric leading up to and during January 6 constituted incitement and active support of the disruption, which legally fit the definition of "engaging" in an insurrection. 

• CBS News

"I am mindful that no Secretary of State has ever deprived a presidential candidate of ballot access based on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. I am also mindful, however, that no presidential candidate has ever before engaged in insurrection."

— Shenna Bellows, December 2023 Ruling 

The Portland Press Herald

The Final Legal Outcome

While Bellows suspended her own ruling pending appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court completely bypassed her factual findings when they overturned the decision in March 2024 (Trump v. Anderson). The Supreme Court didn't rule on whether Trump actually engaged in an insurrection; instead, they ruled that individual states simply do not have the constitutional authority to enforce Section 3 against federal candidates, stating that power belongs strictly to Congress. 

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics

did she support rank choice voting in me

Yes, Shenna Bellows has been a strong and consistent supporter of Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV) in Maine, both as a lawmaker and in her current role as Secretary of State. 

Bangor Daily News

Her involvement with RCV spans a few different phases of her career:

1. Legislative Support

While serving in the Maine State Senate (2016–2020), Bellows consistently voted in favor of implementing and expanding RCV. When Maine voters first approved RCV via a citizen initiative in 2016, the legislature faced intense partisan battles and legal hurdles over how to implement it. Bellows firmly backed the will of the voters during subsequent legislative attempts to delay or weaken the law. She also supported expanding RCV to presidential primary and general elections, which Maine successfully did in 2020. 

League of Women Voters

2. Administrative Role as Secretary of State

As Secretary of State, Bellows is the chief election official responsible for actually running Maine's elections. She has defended the system against logistical and political challenges, ensuring her office effectively administers the complex, multi-round tabulation process. 

Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center - The University of Maine

Because Maine uses a "hybrid" system—where RCV is legally allowed for federal races and state-level primaries, but barred by the state constitution for state-level general elections—her office has dedicated significant resources to public education, hosting community events to clear up voter confusion about when they can and cannot rank their ballots. 

The Maine Monitor

3. Active Use in Her Current Campaign

Bellows' support for the system is highly visible in her current campaign for the June 2026 Democratic gubernatorial primary. Because it is a crowded, wide-open race, RCV strategy is playing a massive role. 

FairVote+ 1

In May 2026, Bellows actively leaned into the system by forming a strategic alliance with fellow progressive candidates Troy Jackson (former State Senate President) and Hannah Pingree (former House Speaker). The trio publicly announced a joint RCV strategy, explicitly asking their supporters to rank Bellows first, and to utilize their second- and third-choice slots for Jackson and Pingree to consolidate the progressive vote against frontrunner Nirav Shah. 

Maine AFL-CIO

Nirav Shah

In Maine, Dr. Nirav Shah became a household name and a uniquely popular public figure during the COVID-19 pandemic, serving as the Director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC) from 2019 to 2023.

Known for his calm demeanor, clear-headed explanations, and frequent use of pop-culture references during daily televised briefings, he won widespread praise across the political spectrum for his leadership during the health crisis.

Transition to the National Stage

In early 2023, Dr. Shah was appointed as the Principal Deputy Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S. CDC), stepping into the number-two leadership role at the federal agency in Atlanta, Georgia.

Clarification on the 2026 Gubernatorial Race

While Dr. Shah remains a beloved figure in Maine—even inspiring a dedicated fan club during the pandemic—he is not a candidate in the 2026 Maine gubernatorial race, nor is he running for political office.

Because he is currently serving in a prominent, non-partisan federal role at the U.S. CDC, he remains entirely outside of electoral politics. The primary Democratic contenders facing off to succeed Governor Janet Mills in June 2026 include prominent state figures like Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, former Senate President Troy Jackson, and former House Speaker Hannah Pingree.

why the rcv strategy for bellows?

In Maine's multi-candidate elections, Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV) completely shifts campaign incentives. For a candidate like Shenna Bellows in the crowded June 2026 Democratic gubernatorial primary, forming an alliance with other candidates isn't just a friendly gesture—it is a calculated mathematical strategy designed to overcome a frontrunner. 

Wikipedia

The strategy behind the RCV alliance between Bellows, Troy Jackson, and Hannah Pingree centers on three primary objectives:

1. Blocking a Frontrunner

In a standard "plurality" election (where whoever gets the most votes wins, even if it's only 30%), a divided field is a disaster for candidates who share a similar voter base. It splits the vote and hands the victory to the leading candidate.

In this primary, polling consistently shows Dr. Nirav Shah leading the pack with around 28% to 32% of the vote, but well short of the 50% needed to win outright. By teaming up, Bellows, Jackson, and Pingree are acknowledging that while none of them may beat Shah in the first round of voting, their combined support is much larger than his. 

Wikipedia

2. Consolidating the Progressive Base

Bellows, Jackson, and Pingree all share deep roots in traditional Maine state government and lean heavily into progressive policy platforms (backed by grassroots groups like the Maine People's Alliance and labor unions).

If their supporters only vote for their single favorite candidate, those votes are siloed. By instructing their respective voters to rank the other two alliance members as their #2 and #3 choices, they ensure that as the lowest-ranking candidates are eliminated in subsequent rounds of counting, those progressive votes stay within the alliance rather than scattering or exhausting.

3. Playing the "Instant Runoff" Math

To understand why this helps Bellows specifically, you have to look at how RCV tabulation actually works when no one hits 50% on the first ballot:

[Round 1: First-Choice Votes Counted]

If no candidate crosses 50%...

[Round 2: Lowest Candidate Eliminated]

Their ballots are redistributed to whoever those voters ranked #2.

[Repeated Rounds...]

This continues until someone crosses the 50% threshold.

Because Bellows, Jackson, and Pingree are polling in a relatively tight cluster behind Shah, the ultimate winner of the alliance will be whoever survives the longest.

• If Pingree is eliminated first, her votes largely transfer to Bellows and Jackson.

• If Jackson is eliminated next, his accumulated votes transfer to Bellows.

• By the final round, Bellows hopes to absorb enough second- and third-choice votes from her alliance partners to vault past Shah and capture the nomination.

Civil Campaigning

A major side benefit of this strategy is that it prevents the candidates from attacking each other. In an RCV system, if Bellows runs negative ads against Jackson or Pingree, she risks alienating their supporters—the very people whose second-choice votes she desperately needs to win. The alliance allows them to campaign cordially, contrast themselves on experience rather than ideology, and present a unified front.

compare/contrast Bellows and Shah 

The 2026 Democratic gubernatorial primary in Maine presents a fascinating clash of styles, backgrounds, and political strategies between two of the race’s heaviest hitters: Secretary of State Shenna Bellows and Dr. Nirav Shah.

While both are highly recognizable statewide figures running on progressive-leaning Democratic platforms to succeed Governor Janet Mills, their political profiles, bases of support, and paths to the nomination could not be more different.

The Comparison (How They Are Similar)

• High Statewide Name Recognition: Both are household names in Maine, though for entirely different reasons. Bellows gained national prominence for her 14th Amendment ruling on Donald Trump, while Shah earned broad popularity during his tenure leading the Maine CDC through the COVID-19 pandemic. 

• Bangor Daily News

• Broad Ideological Alignment: On policy, both align with mainstream-to-progressive Democratic priorities. Both have emphasized systemic improvements to Maine's public health, expansions to social safety nets, and protecting voting access.

• Strong Favorable Ratings: Recent polling from May 2026 indicates that both candidates enjoy remarkably high favorability ratings among likely primary voters, making this a race determined more by candidate style and trust than bitter ideological division.

The Contrast (How They Differ)

Metric / Aspect

Shenna Bellows

Dr. Nirav Shah

Professional Background

Political organizer, civil rights advocate (ACLU), state legislator, and constitutional executive.

Epidemiologist, attorney, public health administrator, and former federal official (U.S. CDC).

Political Identity

The Ultimate Insider. A seasoned veteran of Maine politics who knows the levers of Augusta government inside and out.

The Trustworthy Outsider. A political newcomer who has never run for or held elected office before this race.

Endorsements & Institutional Support

Heavily backed by the Democratic establishment, current state lawmakers, labor unions, and grassroots advocacy groups.

Minimal institutional backing; his endorsements mostly consist of a few local officials (like sheriffs and mayors).

Relationship with Voters

Indirect & Strategic. Supported by voters who align with her specific policy fights, progressive track record, and constitutional stances.

Direct & Personal. Rooted in the deep, direct trust he built with Mainers during his calm, pop-culture-infused daily pandemic briefings.

Primary Campaign Strategy

The RCV Alliance. Recognizing she is chasing a frontrunner, she has teamed up with Troy Jackson and Hannah Pingree to consolidate the institutional progressive vote.

The "Go-It-Alone" Frontrunner. Relying on his poll-leading first-choice support, he is banking on a direct mandate from voters without entering cross-endorsement deals.

Summary of the Dynamic

Essentially, Shenna Bellows represents the structured strength of the state Democratic apparatus. She is running a textbook, highly calculated campaign leveraging endorsements, legislative networks, and the tactical math of Ranked-Choice Voting to build a winning coalition from the ground up.

Dr. Nirav Shah, on the other hand, is a completely unconventional frontrunner. He is testing whether a deep, singular bond of public trust forged during a generational crisis can bypass traditional party gatekeepers, legislative experience, and backroom political alliances to capture the Blaine House. 

Bangor Daily News