Gwen Higgins, an artist originally from the Midcoast, lives in Bangor.
As I write, incense burns behind me and French jazz plays. I’m a full-time working artist fearlessly walking around downtown Bangor at all hours. Bobby Charles doesn’t care to win my vote.
Alas, he has won my attention.
First, white and red yard signs popped up along roadsides. Then came a self-made campaign video where he feigned a struggle with literal red tape while complaining about proverbial red tape.
Grimacing at the prospect of another unserious man in a position of power, I dug deeper.
This flannel-wearing shouty man who seemed barely technologically literate was … a Dartmouth grad? Dartmouth College as in the Ivy League. Then a degree from Oxford University before studying law at Columbia (again, of the Ivy League).
Charles’ Wikipedia page features a sharp headshot from 2017 and lists his professional accomplishments. According to the page, he began as a law clerk in the circuit court. Then litigated for private firms and advised in the White House under President Reagan. He taught continuing education courses through Harvard (a third Ivy League school). Returned to the White House under George H.W. Bush. A mustachioed noodle in the alphabet soup of the federal government.
In an attempt to escape the churn of public service, Charles registered as a lobbyist. The Charles Group was founded in 1999, and he is currently listed as the president. He went on a lobbying hiatus from 2003 to 2005 to work in the second George W. Bush administration, which he credits as “[leading] to the development of strong international relationships, which reinforce his strong ties with many in Congress and the administration.”
Although the Charles Group website has been taken down, archived pages of his biography say “[he] remains close to many top decision makers in Washington.”
The Lobbying Disclosure Act obligates registration of transactions — as of writing, The Charles Group’s last activity was July 16, 2026 on behalf of Voyager Technologies. Days later, the company received another contract atop its hundred million dollars worth of government contracts inked since hiring the firm in 2025.
A review of Charles Group’s clients shows predominantly working with companies vying for a slice of the massive military budget. His clients are in aviation, aerospace, military technology, narcotics and law enforcement.
In an op-ed published on a website of the Association of Mature Americans in June of last year, Charles described one federal job as “[getting] called back into the government to set up police in Iraq, do counternarcotics, and clean up a contractor snake pit. The place […] was the U.S. State Department. The operations overseen by [him] included the nation’s largest civilian air wing […] plus global police training […]”
Red string attaching the Charles Group’s lobbying clients’ contracts to Charles’ prior federal employment forms a straight line.
The firm held a long relationship with the Association of Mature Americans. AMAC paid at least $400,000 so the Charles Group would lobby for its interests, such as a repeal of the estate tax (a tax affecting inheritances over $5 million).
AMAC views itself as the right-wing alternative to AARP. It is pro-fossil-fuel, anti-Affordable Care Act, touts election fraud myths, runs its own for-profit insurance marketplace and is anti-reproductive freedom and anti-LGBTQ (to name a few causes).
What’s more, AMAC has boasted Mr. Charles as its national spokesman. It continues to post his near-daily essays with subjects ranging from support for the war in Iran to disdain for the Maine Supreme Court and an overall disregard for citations.
Bobby Charles routinely accuses his opponents of being Augusta insiders. Taking care to specify “Augusta” because admonishing government insiders writ large would be self-deprecating.
Charles has claimed his campaign doesn’t and won’t take money from “Augusta” lobbyists. Meanwhile, Robert Charles, lobbying firm president, loaned Bobby For Maine a total of $220,000 between June 2025 and May 2026. Feels akin to saying Miley Cyrus won’t take money from Hannah Montana.
There is conflict and dishonesty here. Charles presents as our salt-of-the-earth neighbor with his fingers crossed behind his back.