Op-Ed: Eric Ventimiglia: How a Maine Senate candidate cashed in on getting “big money out of politics”
Jordan Wood's scandal reveals more than just personal gain; it’s a betrayal of the public’s trust in a system already strained by cynicism, Eric Ventimiglia explains.
Recent revelations of self-dealing by a major D.C.-based fundraising firm that generates millions online for liberal causes and candidates have raised serious ethical concerns about the consultants involved and exposed the hypocrisy of one of the largest advocacy groups in the space, End Citizens United (ECU).
Founded in 2015 by Democratic political consultants Jake Lipsett, Greg Berlin, and Charles Starnes, ECU’s stated mission was “fixing our democracy by getting big money out of politics.” The group was named for and focused on overturning the 2010 Supreme Court decision Citizens United v. FEC, which, on free speech grounds, negated certain campaign finance restrictions and allowed corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited money on elections.
However, recent reports indicate that rather than limiting money in politics, ECU’s founders have instead raised hundreds of millions of dollars and kept most of it for themselves.
Just one year prior to launching ECU, these same three operatives founded an advocacy and political fundraising firm called Mothership Strategies. In the years that followed, Mothership built “a sprawling, multimillion-dollar business by sending out spammy, alarmist fundraising messages that promise to help elect Democrats, while delivering almost none of the money to candidates.” A 2019 Washington Post report highlighted these “unethical” methods.
Picture a barrage of text messages lighting up phones at all hours, each one claiming a crisis that only a quick donation can fix. These relentless pitches, cloaked in righteous urgency, turn civic passion into a cash machine for consultants, leaving the promised democratic reforms as little more than a slogan.
Just last month, Stanford University professor Adam Bonica published an analysis of FEC data since 2018 showing that Mothership-linked groups, including ECU, raised $678 million, but only about $11 million reached their intended candidates or campaigns. This means roughly 98 cents of every dollar — often from grassroots donors advocating for a cause they care about — went to overhead and consultants.
Now, the operatives running this scam are showing up in politics in a new way. This spring, former longtime ECU vice president Jordan Wood announced a campaign for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in Maine, to potentially challenge longtime Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine). Wood actually served as the original Finance Director for ECU, meaning he played a key role in how they handled millions in donations and their relationship with Mothership.
In his campaign pitch, Wood portrays himself as a reformer fighting to “take our country back from the rich and well-connected” in part by highlighting his past experience with ECU. But the hypocrisy goes further: Wood also happens to be married to Mothership Strategies co-founder Jake Lipsett, and together the pair recently purchased a $3 million waterfront home in Bristol, Maine — sparking more questions about the source of the couple’s wealth. The palatial Bristol home, with its sweeping coastal views, stands in stark contrast to the modest means of the thousands of Mainers who trusted ECU with their donations.
This scandal reveals more than just personal gain; it’s a betrayal of the public’s trust in a system already strained by cynicism. When those preaching reform profit from manipulation, they undermine the very foundation of open, honest governance. In America, we ought to have a robust debate about the role of money in politics. But what we don’t need is progressive operatives lecturing about the “rich and well-connected” while using scam tactics to raise — and then pocket — millions.
Eric Ventimiglia serves as Executive Director of Pinpoint Policy Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit educational organization dedicated to promoting and defending the essential pillars of American prosperity.