Ethics commission to examine the use of ‘re-elect’ in campaign ads

State Rep. Kenneth Lindell: Politicker PhotoFor the second time in as many months, the Maine Governmental Ethics and Election Practices Commission will consider the use of the verb "re-elect" in campaign literature by candidates who are non-incumbents of the offices that they are running for. The commission will consider whether or not such actions are appropriate this Friday, June 27.

The topic was raised because of the actions of former state Rep. Kenneth Lindell (R-Frankfort). After Lindell lost his seat in 2006, he decided to run again for the same office this year. He decided to use campaign signs printed in his last election campaign, which read "Re-elect Lindell State Representative." When some decided to question the veracity of the signs, Lindell took the matter to the GEEPC's Assistant Director Paul Lavin for a decision.

Lavin wrote in an e-mail response that, "Whether someone may find the term re-elect misleading may be a possibility, but its use does not violate any law or rule of guidelines found in Maine's Election Laws." According to Lavin, the only restrictions that pertain to campaign ads is approved by the candidate it supports, has the address of that individual and only uses an endorsement for advertising when authorized by the endorser do so.

Then, according to the agenda for the GEEPC's upcoming session, commission member Francis Marsano (R-Belfast) raised the issue of "re-elect" during the commission's meeting on May 30. Marsano said that Lavin should have made reference to the Code of Fair Campaign practices, a voluntary pledge of good conduct to the commission that Lindell had signed this March and may have violated with his actions. The meeting concluded with the commission agreeing to place the topic of the appropriateness of Lindell's use of "re-elect" on the agenda for this Friday's session.

Since then, information was received by GEEPC about the advertising campaigns of state Reps. Jacqueline Lundeen (D-Mars Hill) and Troy Jackson (D-Fort Kent), who are both running for state senate seats. Their ads also included the word "re-elect," though neither candidate had ever been elected to the state senate.

In Lundeen's case, when Comission Executive Director Jonathan Wayne contacted her to tell her about the meeting, she informed him that the phrase "re-elect" had only been on a small number of signs and had been already been fully or partially covered when they were placed.

Jackson's primary opponent did not end up filing a formal complaint to the commission, as was his earlier intent. The commission did not state in its agenda for the upcoming session whether or not "re-elect" had been removed from Jackson's ads.

However, Jackson said that the issue was taken out of proportion and the error had already been corrected.

"It was only on four signs out of 700," Jackson said. "I only had four signs that said 're-elect'. I spent a day and I went around and scratched them all off."

He denied any attempt to use the phrase for political gain, noting that current state Sen. John Martin (D-Eagle Lake) is well known to be the incumbent.

"I'm not trying to deceive anyone," Jackson said. "John is the current senator, and the people know that."

Jackson said that the issue was manufactured by Pelletier, but ultimately wouldn't affect the outcome of the race.

"I thought that was more dirty campaign stuff by my opponent, but I took care of it," he said.