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Health technology entrepreneur Jonathan Bush’s outsider message in Maine’s Republican gubernatorial primary got a boost this week from a group backed by two Democratic donors.
Todd Park, who co-founded athenahealth with Bush in 1997 and later became President Barack Obama’s tech advisor, is one of the top funders of the political action committee Maine Dream Inc., whose first ad ahead of the June 9 primary pitched the Bush family scion Monday as “a new kind of Bush” and a “disruptor” in a wide-open gubernatorial race.
The donor list shows Bush’s deep national connections and the unconventional coalition that is trying to help him burnish conservative credentials and shed parts of his family’s legacy in the era of President Donald Trump.
Park and Sumir Chadha, the founder of a global investment firm and an increasingly prominent Democratic donor, each gave $100,000 to the PAC through last year’s end. Also mentioned as a top funder in the new ad is Jim Davis, the billionaire chairman of New Balance and a major Republican donor who gave $1 million last year to a group supporting U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican locked in one of the country’s biggest races.
With business, tech and finance playmakers as its top funders, Maine Dream is highlighting Bush’s business chops and making the case he’s the man to shake up state government.
“Maine Dream backs Jon Bush because he’s the only candidate with the management skills to audit Augusta and balance the budget,” PAC spokesperson Robert Gray told the Bangor Daily News. “Bush is not an insider or a lobbyist blinded by special interests, but a businessman with a fresh perspective who can deliver financial relief for Mainers.”
Maine Dream said it could not comment on individual donors.
Park, the founder and executive chairman of Massachusetts-based Devoted Health, reportedly donated more than $600,000 to Democratic PACs and 47 of the 50 state Democratic parties in 2024. In prior years he donated to high-profile Democrats including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna of California and former President Joe Biden.
He has also donated to Republicans and libertarians, including former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, and the late U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona before becoming an Obama donor, according to federal data held by OpenSecrets.
Chadha, who leads the Silicon Valley firm Westbridge Capital and sits on the board of the American India Foundation, has also been a longtime philanthropist and contributor to Democratic candidates and state parties, including in Maine.
He donated to Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024. He has also donated to Republicans such as Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina Governor, United Nations ambassador and presidential candidate who came in a distant second to Trump in the 2024 GOP primaries.
Other big investments in Maine Dream include $25,000 from philanthropist Lawrence Sosnow, a co-founder and lead investor in athenahealth, and almost $46,000 from Carl Byers, another member of athenaheath’s founding team, and his wife.
Bush stood out in a recent Bangor Republican gubernatorial debate by acknowledging his past criticism of Trump, who has frequently attacked the Bush family. He said he’s converted to the president’s side on issues such as immigration, and that his relative distance with Trump could help him in the general election in a Democratic-leaning state.
Bush campaign manager Eamonn Dundon invoked Trump in a statement, calling him an “outsider businessman with bipartisan support,” and saying he wasn’t surprised if Democrats similarly come after Bush for having members of their own party backing him.
“We’re not affiliated with this group, but Jonathan being an outsider with the backing of people he’s worked with to create Maine jobs in the past is clearly scaring the Janet Mills and Augusta insider crowd,” he said.
