Jane Mayer's recent book Dark Money chronicles the deliberate takeover of our country's political power and discourse by the extreme conservative corporate ideology of the Koch brothers and other very wealthy interests. Her disturbing conclusion is that big corporate money – most from secret untraceable sources ("dark money") - has drastically shifted the political landscape away from the voting preferences of most ordinary people.

Up here in Maine, we may think we are insulated from dark money. Sadly, this is not the case. Big corporate donors are flooding our elections with cash, including dark money funneled through lobbyists and lawyers.

Those of us who live in Waldo County are fortunate to have a clear choice between our state senate candidates. We have Mike Thibodeau, whose contributors include the biggest law and lobbyist firms in the state. These lawyers and lobbyists have given more than $25,000 so far to Thibodeau's campaign and leadership PACs. We don't know, and have no way of knowing, who is paying them to fill Thibodeau's political coffers.

Our other choice is Jonathan Fulford, a Clean Elections candidate funded only by $5 contributions from publicly identified Waldo County residents and public monies supported by taxpayers.

I know who I trust to serve Waldo County interests. And it's not the guy with the dark money checkbook in his back pocket.

Bill Suworoff lives in Belfast