DAMARISCOTTA — The Lincoln County Democratic Committee plans to hold its next hybrid meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16.

The meeting will be held at the American Legion Post 42, 527 Main St., and online via Zoom. The main program will feature a discussion on dark money-funded extremist groups that are active in Maine politics.

Maurice Cunningham, author of “Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization” and a former associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, will be the guest speaker.

Since retiring from that post in 2021, Cunningham has continued his research into dark money in politics, authoring two reports on the dark money threat to public education for the Network for Public Education, “Merchants of Deception: Parent Props and their Funders” and “A Citizen’s Guide to the School Privatization Movement,” which is forthcoming, according to a news release from Kelli Whitlock Burton with the Democratic Committee.

Cunningham will talk about the involvement in local elections by groups such as Moms for Liberty (M4L), a national organization that has helped organize book challenges in schools around the country over the past year, efforts largely centered around books written by and about LGBTQ+ people and people of color.

The civil rights and racial justice advocacy organization Southern Poverty Law Center recently classified M4L as an “extremist” anti-student inclusion group. M4L recently formed its first chapter in Maine, based in Kennebec County.

Registration is not required to attend the meeting in person but is required for non-voting members who wish to receive the Zoom link, phone-in details and reminder emails. Register at lincolncountydemocrats.com/meet before noon the day of the meeting to ensure access. The committee will also do its best to accommodate last-minute registrations.

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