PORTLAND – What’s touted as a Sam’s Club for progressives gives Democratic Party members who buy membership cards discounts on heating oil and other purchases.

“By pooling our buying power, we can get better prices for everybody,” said Rita Moran, the Democratic Party chairwoman of Kennebec County whose Winthrop bookstore offers Donkey Card holders 10 percent discounts on new books.

The Donkey Card purchasing cooperative is seen as a throwback to the days when political parties fostered social safety nets that rewarded them with loyalty at the polls, said one of the cooperative’s founders, Greg Dumas of Saco.

“People will remember who helped them save hundreds of dollars on heating oil,” said Dumas, a longtime York County Democratic activist and a Democratic State Committee member. “People will remember who’s out in the community making things happen. We think, in the long run, there will be a real payoff to that service.”

Mark Brewer, who teaches political science at the University of Maine, put it a different way.

“It’s, ‘I’ll scratch your back, and you’ll remember me on Election Day,'” Brewer said. “It’s as old as republican government itself.”

For $35 annual fees, Donkey Card holders get cheaper home heating oil and discounts on other products and services ranging from oil burner cleaning to rooms at a Maine inn. About 525 households have bought Donkey Cards since the program was launched three months ago.

Part of the fees support community programs, such as homeless shelters and food banks. Republicans, Greens and independent voters are allowed to join.

The donkey symbol for the Democrats and elephant for Republicans date to the 1870s, when Thomas Nast began drawing them in his cartoons in Harper’s Weekly.

State Republican Party Executive Director Julie Ann O’Brien says Mainers aren’t likely to see an Elephant Card soon.

Republicans make their own decisions about where to volunteer or donate money, and don’t need a “bureaucracy” to do it for them, she said.

“Once again, the Democrats are saying, ‘We know what’s best and where your money should go,'” O’Brien said.