More free press for Herb Hoffman

Proving, once again, that you can run a media campaign on 400 dollars, Herb Hoffman continues to enjoy his 15 minutes of fame---now going on half an hour. The Democrats have decided to appeal the decision of Mr. Hoffman's ballot status to the superior court.

Mr. Hoffman, the Independent candidate for the US Senate, has faced a series of obstacles to his ballot status since submitting his signatures in June. The initial challenge was filed by John Knutson, the head of the Democrat Party. In his claim, Knutson alleged a certain number of signatures approved by the Secretary of State were invalid, and that the number of signatures in question put Mr. Hoffman below the 4000 signature mark. Deputy Secretary of State Julie Flynn ruled in Hoffman's favor and that decision was upheld by Secretary of State, Matt Dunlap.

In his press release announcing his decision, Mr. Dunlap noted, "As a result of evidence and testimony presented at the June 16 Hearing, the Challenger was able to demonstrate that 74 of those signatures were in fact invalid. With those 74 signatures disallowed, however, a total of 4, 038 valid signatures remain, which is still a sufficient number to place Hoffman's name on statewide ballots in November as a candidate in the race for the office of U.S. Senator".

That means, Mr. Hoffman had 38 signatures to spare.

Unfortunately for Mr. Hoffman, Maine law also allows for either the petition challenger or the candidate to appeal the decision of the Secretary of State by way of an action in Superior Court within 5 days of this decision.

That appeal was field on June 20th. According to a press release by the Maine Democratic Party, they are challenging the Secretary of State's decision based on the circulator's oath. They claim that Mr. Hoffman did not witness several signatures on some if the petitions he claimed to have witnessed. As a result, they contend that the entire petition and all of the signatures on it, should be discounted. That number would be a sufficient number to bring Mr. Hoffman below the 4000 signatures needed.

Mr. Hoffman issued a press release stating, "The Democrats know that this is not a big-money campaign," Hoffman said, "and they are trying to divert attention from debating the real issues that Maine voters will face in this fall's election"

The democrats are in a tough place. Mr. Hoffman's candidacy is not good news for the Allen campaign, and the democrats know it. Unfortunately for the Dems, they have to balance that reality with Mainer's sense of fairness.

As a rule -- Maine people like rules, but they value what is fair, above all else. The importance of fairness in Maine, which usually transcends politics, is one of those things that makes Maine such a great place to live.

That will be the challenge for the Democrats. Can they eliminate Mr. Hoffman from the ballot and do it in the name of fairness? Or, will they overplay their hand, and be viewed as thugs determined to win at all costs?

It's a close call, but I think the jury is still out on that.

In the meantime, expect several press stories, a few TV interviews and lots of blog chatter for Mr. Hoffman --which is not bad for a guy with no money, no political experience and no staff.