Barbara Merrill

Qualifications for public financing in gubernatorial races will be put under the microscope Friday by the Maine Ethics Commission.

In 2006, five candidates ran for governor in the general election – a Republican, a Democrat, a Green and two Independents. Three ran under the Maine Clean Elections Act.

Since then, several bills have come before the legislature seeking to tighten restrictions on who can qualify for public financing in gubernatorial races. As a result, the Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee asked the Ethics Commission to look at the issue and come back with recommendations by October of this year.

The commission will hold a public hearing on the issue Friday at 9 a.m. Click here for the hearing materials and the full information on the pending proposal.

Former independent gubernatorial candidate Barbara Merrill found a loophole in the Maine Clean Elections Act in 2006, when she paid her husband $109,000 in public funds to be her consultant.

It wasn’t illegal. That’s a problem, many testified today.

New Year's Resolutions.

We all make them.....and break them.  Here are a few suggestions for a number of Maine Politicians and other public officials.

UPDATED Nov. 21 at noon.

After a gubernatorial candidate paid her spouse for campaign work with public funds, and a Lewiston lawmaker forged campaign reports and instead used Clean Elections funds for personal use, legislators are targeting campaign finance laws in the upcoming session.

Similar bills look at conflict of interest by a lawmaker, and lobbyist disclosure.

Speaker of the House Glenn Cummings, Rep. Marilyn Canavan, a former director of the state Ethics Commission and Rep. John Piotti, chairman of the Taxation Committee, all have bills moving forward that were approved by the Legislative Council.