John Christie

108 posts

John Christie is the co-founder, former publisher and former senior reporter of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting. He has covered local, state and national politics as a reporter, editor and publisher at newspapers in Maine, Massachusetts and Florida and holds a BA in political science from the University of New Hampshire.

A $10 bill and a $20 bill lay across a table

From a gazillion dollars to bupkis — our annual index

Once a year, we take our inspiration from the clever folks at Harper's Magazine, and produce, as they do, an index of "ironic statistics arranged for thoughtful effect." Our index, written by Editor-in-Chief John Christie, is drawn from the stories we published in the past year.

ByJohn Christie

January 5, 2016

LePage ordered an approved $100K payment to charter school stopped when Eves named head of school

Gov. Paul LePage reversed a routine and state-approved payment to a Fairfield nonprofit that operates a charter school.

ByJohn Christie Naomi Schalit

June 25, 2015

Closed door: Legislators conducting public business in private despite state’s open meeting law

The legislature's practice of conducting the public's business — such as budget negotiations — behind closed doors likely violated the state's Freedom of Access Act (FOAA).

ByJohn Christie

June 10, 2015

Memo: LePage inserted himself in religious discrimination case against Moody’s Diner

Gov. Paul LePage inserted himself into a state law enforcement proceeding about a religious discrimination case and threatened to go to court if the legal process was not postponed, according to an internal memo.

ByJohn Christie Naomi Schalit

February 18, 2015

A box, with a green background, with the text THE WATCHDOG INDEX 2014

The Watchdog Index: What you can do with $42 million

What would it look like if campaign funds were used elsewhere? Here's what we found.

ByJohn Christie Naomi Schalit

December 10, 2014

Exterior of the Maine State House during the winter with trees missing all their leaves.

Poll news is no news

As voters surely saw this past campaign season, there were lots of polls. They showed how one candidate was winning or another. But polls can be wrong, and they are often abused by political operatives who want to promote candidates.

ByJohn Christie

November 19, 2014

Sydney Roberts Rockefeller sits in a sailboat

The ‘gatekeepers’: Ten wealthy Mainers giving $3.95 million to this election

The top 10 individual Maine donors to state and national political campaigns represent just .001 percent of Maine’s adult population of about one million. But that minuscule percentage represents 27.3 percent of all donations to candidates, parties and causes from contributors with a Maine address.

ByJohn Christie Naomi Schalit Marina Villeneuve

October 30, 2014