Mountain v. Liberty

This week, Jamie sits down with Cynthia Dill — a Maine civil rights attorney, former Democratic state legislator, and 2012 U.S. Senate candidate — to talk about the case that’s put her at odds with her own party.

Dill represented the House and Senate districts covering Cape Elizabeth, South Portland, and part of Scarborough during six years in the Maine Legislature. She ran statewide against Angus King and Charlie Summers in 2012, then moved into media: political columns, commentary on Maine Public, and eventually her own podcast and outlet, Cyndicate Media.

Now she’s litigating Mountain v. Liberty — a lawsuit filed on behalf of female inmates at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham against MDOC Commissioner Randall Liberty and Warden Ben Beal, alleging retaliation against women who objected to being housed with male inmates. The case has drawn Department of Justice attention and put Dill, a lifelong Democrat, in the position of arguing against her own party’s corrections leadership.

Jamie talks with Dill about the case itself, what it’s cost her politically, whether she still calls herself a Democrat, and what conversations with sitting legislators in Augusta actually sound like behind closed doors.

You can find Cynthia on X.

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