If you've been a good political donor, you might go the route of Michael Trenholm, a real estate broker in Maine and proud owner of Squirrel Point Lighthouse.

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He had his senator (at the time Bill Cohen, who became Bill Clinton's secretary of defense) tack a rider onto a bill putting Trenholm's nonprofit, Squirrel Point Lighthouse Associates, in charge.

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Outraged officials and preservation groups have seen Trenholm's move as an egregious example of bad politics, and when Trenholm made a comment about selling the place (a no-no as a nonprofit), the controversy ended up in local newspapers.

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