The ongoing probe of two candidates who may have misused taxpayer money for legislative campaigns sparked a call Wednesday to revamp Maine’s Clean Election Act.
Glenn Cummings, House majority leader, is seeking to beef up enforcement of spending restrictions while making it harder to qualify for taxpayer funding.
Cummings filed an emergency bill that would include hiring a private investigator to monitor how the public’s money is being spent. If passed by two-thirds of the Legislature, the changes would take effect immediately after being signed by the governor. State lawmakers are currently in recess until January.
The bill would create a new position at the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics, which oversees the Clean Elections program. An investigator, at a cost of $50,000, would check on candidates’ spending practices during campaigns.
Cummings also proposed making candidates demonstrate greater commitment to their races by requiring them to raise more money for the Clean Elections program.
• Proposed: House candidates would have to collect 75 contributions of $5 apiece, at least two-thirds of which must come from same-party donors.
• Current: They must collect 50 donations of $5 apiece from any person.
• Proposed: Senate candidates would have to collect 200 contributions of $5, at least three-quarters of which must come from same-party donors.
• Current: They must collect 150.
• Proposed: Gubernatorial candidates would have to collect 3,000 contributions, at least 2,500 of which must come from from same-party donors.
• Current: They must collect 2,500 donations.
Candidates aren’t required to raise any seed money for their campaigns. Cummings would change that. Under his proposal:
• House candidates would have to raise $500.
• Senate candidates would have to raise $1,500.
• Candidates for governor would have to raise $50,000.
The bill would affect candidates for 2006 legislative races, but would not be binding for gubernatorial candidates until after 2008.
No more than one-quarter of a Clean Election candidate’s money should be spent on campaign consultants or similar services, Cummings’ bill states.
Cummings said he was concerned that, in some cases, consultants may have recruited people to run for office as Clean Election candidates in order to tap into easy cash to keep themselves in business. Public hearings held by the commission last week fueled that fear, he said.
“It was not the intent of the citizens of Maine (that consultants) fabricate campaigns in order to draw down public finances, as appears to be the case in a few instances.”
The hearings that began last week focused on incomplete spending records in the 2004 campaigns of Julia St. James of Hartford, who ran as a Fourth Branch Party candidate for the Senate, and Sarah Trundy of Minot, who ran as a Green candidate for the House. Both women lost their races.
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