Maine Supreme Court rules against Hoffman

The Democratic Party is a disgrace to its name. For the first time, I am ashamed to be a Democrat.

Thousands of people signed Hoffman's petition and because of three problem signatures -- the voices of those others will go unheard.

Lucky day for Tom Allen... well, maybe not, because he still has no chance of winning. Maybe he'd have a better chance if he and the Democratic Party fools supporting him spent more time explaining why he is best for Maine, and less time eliminating his opposition.

I can't help but think that this whole dem effort to keep Hoffman off of the ballot makes the Allen campaign appear somewhat flaccid.

-FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-
Today's decision by Maine's Superior Court against the nomination of Independent Candidate Herbert Hoffman has thinned the ranks of nonparty contenders running against the two congressional candidates for US Senate, Tom Allen and Susan Collins; but not entirely.
The fight still continues for Laurie Dobson, Maine's Independent US Senate Candidate, who, on June 24, filed a petition with the Superior Court for the right to be placed on the ballot. The Dobson campaign is appealing a decision by the Secretary of State, who rejected Dobson's request for a reconsideration of her signatures, which were 160 short of the required 4,000. Dobson is appealing on the grounds that there were errors made by state registrars, including late returns and validation mistakes, which would otherwise have allowed her nomination to be certified.
Dobson, who collected over 5,130 signatures, circulated the large majority of petitions herself; and is not in the same position as Hoffman, who had over 45 petition helpers gather his signatures.
"Our campaign has lately been under the media radar, but we have kept going, and have diligently worked to become nominated for the ballot, after collecting well over 4,000 signatures validated by Maine registrars, some of which they returned past their deadline on June 2.
"We hope that voters will be allowed their chance to have a different choice before them this fall than just the two corporate party candidates who have not helped our state or country recover from the disastrous policies they themselves have helped to put into place these last 12 years. Allen and Collins have been wasting our time in Congress, and they should be replaced" said Dobson.
For information, contact: 27-604-8988
Email: contact@dobsonforsenate.com
www.dobsonforsenate.com
"Every vote should count and I am determined to keep the faith with the signators who placed my name in the running for the November election, and I thank them for their hope in my campaign. I will not let them down."

Hoffman being removed from the ballot does not make this a fascist state. He did not follow the rules while gathering his signatures and then lied, albeit unknowingly, by certifying that he had collected signatures personally when in fact he had not. The Justices did what they were supposed to do, they followed the law as it is written, not as Mr. Hoffman's supporters would wish it to be. Oh, and for those of you who say that everyone should be able to run who wants to, remember that it was Barbara Merrill and Pat LaMarche who enabled Baldacci to win 2006 and Ralph Nader who allowed Bush to win Florida in 2000. You can be as pissed off as you like, but there are only two parties in this country who win elections, so pick one of them and stop complaining (and don't try to tell me it's better to lose with a perfect candidate than win with an imperfect one, I doubt anyone would vote Nader again if they could do 2000 over).

I'm not trying to scapegoat third parties, I'm pointing out their impact on elections. There is not such thing as a viable third party in the US. Period. They have been a few successful independent candidates, often referred to as third-party candidates even though independent is not actually a party, but their wins are always due to particular circumstances. Gov. Angus King, the only successful independent in a statewide race in recent memory, won not because he was a "pure" candidate but because he was a moderate, former Democrat who was able to attract large numbers of Democrats and Unenrolleds. Unfortunately very few independents follow Angus King's example. Most independents tend to be either leftwing or rightwing nuts who appeal to a very narrow but passionate segment of one of the parties voters. They have no chance to win, but can often play the role of spoiler but grabbing a few percentage point here or there and swinging a close race. This is what happened in the 2000 Presidential Election.

By contrast, the 2006 gubernatorial election featured one leftwing nut (Pat LaMarche) and one former Democrat-turned Independent (Barbara Merrill). Without Merrill Baldacci couldn't have won; Mainers were clearly not happy with Baldacci and couldn't bring themselves to vote for him, but also did not trust Woodcock who seemed too conservative. So, 22% of voters split the difference and voted for Merrill, who seemed nice enough and had oddly appealing campaign ads (and who was also stealing $100,000 from taxpayers). In this case the independent was successful because they appeared moderate and offered an alternative to two unpopular party candidates.

Herb Hoffman will not appeal to many more than the 4,000 people who signed his petitions (though he does have David Bright squarely behind him). He has no chance of winning. Period. Collins is widely popular among Mainers, and Allen is far more popular than Baldacci was in 2006. Therefore, Hoffman's only potential role is that of the spoiler, the leftwing nut who grabs a few percentage points and hands a close race to Collins. Or the race could end in a total blowout victory for Collins. Either way, Hoffman still wouldn't get more than a few percentage points.

So given all of that, why is it exactly that Hoffman should be on the ballot? I mean aside from his desire to have a few months in the spotlight. (by the way, I find quite hilarious that if Hoffman and Dobson had worked together they could have easily collected enough signatures to put either one of them on the ballot)

This is what Maine Independent US Senate Candidate Herbert Hoffman gets to live with. He could have put our Senate Campaign over the top easily, with his help, in getting petitions delivered and retrieved in time to withstand the delay by clerks.
I started running for this seat in the Senate before anyone else was challenging the two corporate party candidates, five months before he declared; and was already collecting signatures a month before he left the democratic party, the last day it was possible to become an independent. He then proceeded to use all of my main campaign positions, almost to the letter and siphoned off supporters to help his campaign who would otherwise have helped mine; or else they stayed on the fence instead of becoming actively involved.
This is a lesson I hope everybody has learned, which came at the expense of not just one, but two campaigns. I am fighting with an appeal but the time this has cost my campaign, not to mention my family, just in fighting for ballot access, is a crying shame. Thanks to Herb Hoffman for this, and to Jean Hay Bright who thought she could play this 'smart' instead of running a campaign with a real platform of articulated policies.
Nader's campaign tells me they are dealing with his restriction in San Francisco and elsewhere, and dealing with identical issues of ballot access suppression. I suppose that is consolation, in that we are not alone. But it doesn't have to be so ruthless, or shortsighted.
Nevertheless, maybe now that this has come to pass, a little light can be shed on our campaign. I am not holding my breath: it looks as though they are going full throttle to the big name campaigns. Time was, and is, of the essence.
There is no time to lose: I am calling for Maine to sue to stop foreclosures, against these investment bankers who are throwing our people and vital businesses onto the landfills, while they keep their trillions of soap bubble dollars of derivative debt up a few months longer. If San Diego's City Attorney can call for their city to become a foreclosure sanctuary city, we can surely become a foreclosure sanctuary state.

This case was about someone getting on the ballot with not enough valid signatures. If a candidate has to lie to get the right amount of signatures (and he only had a few dozen signatures to spare) does he deserve to be on the ballot? I think not.

Sure, the Maine Democratic Party wants Allen to win but the media jumped on that issue instead of the true one - the false oath sworn by Mr Hoffman. If the courts allow this false oath, even if unintentional, what does that say about any other notarized oath? Is it okay to swear to something you know is not true? The Supreme Court said no.

If this legal issue means people will vote for Susan Collins, go for it. We have a President, whom she supports, who doesn't believe in the law of the land. At least in Maine, the law means something.