Democratic legislative leaders are condemning mailers sent to some lawmakers that espouse white nationalist ideology.
The one-page mailer, titled "What is AntiWhiteism," went out to at least eight Democrats in the Maine Senate and an unknown number of House members. The flyer talks about dispossession and defamation of "ethnic Europeans" and raises the specter of “demographic replacement via immigration as well as revisionist historical interpretations that facilitate White erasure.”
House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross of Portland, who is Black, and Senate President Troy Jackson of Allagash denounced the mailers.
“We cannot state this forcefully enough: We have zero tolerance for white nationalist groups’ behavior or intimidation,” Talbot Ross and Jackson said in a joint statement. “The groups issuing these messages masquerade as seeking social justice, yet in reality distort information to create false equivalency to misdirect the public and stoke racial tensions. The State Legislature is a place where lawmakers, members of the public and professional staff deserve safety, security and the certainty that the democratic process will operate without harassment.”
Consistent with policy, Jackson and Talbot Ross’s office reported the mailers to the Capitol Police.
It was unclear Friday who sent the mailers, although the sheet lists four organizations as collaborators on the mailer: Way of the World, Anti-White Watch, Solidarity Europa and Klaus Arminius.
The mailer follows several public incidents in Maine, most recently in Portland, involving people affiliated with white nationalist groups. Earlier this month, a few dozen members of the group Nationalist Social Club – a white nationalist group based in New England that the Anti-Defamation League says is a neo-Nazi organization – held a march through downtown Portland. Several skirmishes broke out but police did not arrest or charge anyone, which has led some to criticize the police department and call for more action by the Portland City Council.
