Clean Elections

A state representative running unopposed has brought an ethics complaint against a state Senate candidate Valerie Carr-Winocour (R-Old Town) for a flier she sent out attacking her, the candidate’s opponent and another state representative.

Winocour, a clean elections candidate, sent out a mailer to all of Senate District 30 with the banner “The Baldacci bunch”. It accuses the Democrats of siding with Gov. John Baldacci to increase state spending and taxes. Sen. Elizabeth Schneider (D-Orono), her opponent, is the main target, but Reps. Emily Cain (D-Orono), Michael Dunn (D-Bangor), Richard Blanchard (D-Old Town) and John Martin (D-Eagle Lake) are also mentioned.

“Since the fine people of Eagle Lake are unlikely to vote Mr. Martin out of office, we must fix things ourselves,” the mailer states.

The Maine Ethics Commission’s staff is questioning more than $2,000 in purchases by independent state Senate candidate Dana Kadey of Princeton, and recommending that he reimburse the state.

According to his campaign finance reports, Kadey used Maine Clean Elections Act funds to buy a GPS device for $414, a cooler for his vehicle for $188 and a truck cap and roof rack for $1,363 plus $109 in travel to buy it. They were paid for out of the $21,005 in public funds he received for his campaign. The GPS device was his first purchase of the campaign.

This year Kadey is running against Raye and Karen Johnson (D-Machias). The district includes all of Washington County.

This his second run for state Senate. In a four-way race in 2006, he got 13 percent of the vote. Sen. Kevin Raye (R-Perry) won with 59 percent of the vote.

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.

Candidates running with public financing will have a little less money to work with this year.

In the latest round of budget cuts, the Legislature cut 5 percent of funding for Clean Elections candidates. It’s not that big of a deal, said Jonathan Wayne, executive director of the Ethics’ Commission -- it’s the lawmakers’ way of sharing the sacrifice of the budget cuts.

Two ethics bills have recently advanced in the Maine Legislature.  read more »

Click here for photos of the Jim Hightower event. See below for video of Hightower’s speech.  read more »