Chandler Woodcock

Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign has an answer to the Lieberman – McCain connection: "Maine Republicans for Obama."

They held an event in front of Portland City Hall to officially kick off the coalition with Robert Monks, the former chairman of the Maine Republican Party and Sherry Huber, who served in the Maine House of Representatives from 1976-1982.

Democratic state House candidate Alex Cornell du Houx said that his appearance in a new third party ad against U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Bangor) won't conflict with the Maine Clean Elections Act.

If his appearance in the ad is deemed legal, it could open up a loophole for third party groups to interfere with Clean Elections candidates, said Dan Billings, a Waterville attorney and an expert in Maine's campaign finance laws.

The ad, paid for by VoteVets.org, criticizes Collins for supporting the Iraq War. Cornell du Houx, of Brunswick, appeared in his capacity as an Iraq War veteran, and did not mention his candidacy for the Legislature.

Click here for a previous report on the issue.

In the last legislative session, state lawmakers approved measures that made it 30 percent harder for candidates for governor to qualify for public financing. They also required all gubernatorial candidates to be audited by the Ethics Commission.

Lawmakers also asked Jonathan Wayne, executive director of the commission, to study further improvements to public financing in gubernatorial elections.

At a public hearing Friday morning, a handful of proponents – mostly the usual suspects – said that the most recent round of changes should play out in 2010 before any more are made.

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.

The folks at the Romney campaign have released the names of the steering committee for his campaign here in Maine.  For those of you who don't know, a steering committee steers nothing, but is usually a good way to let other people know where your support is coming from.