It’s tough to write funny.

Without the timing, the facial expressions, the context of the conversation, what’s meant to be taken as a joke or as sarcasm turns serious. Not everybody gets the joke, even if there is one.

Ask Dan Billings.

Billings is an active Republican, good lawyer, counsel to gubernatorial candidate Chandler Woodcock’s campaign and a frequent contributor to www.asmainegoes.com, an online political forum that’s a favorite among conservatives.

On Oct. 2, Billings posted some strategic advice for Republicans who support Woodcock on the Web site. Titled “Time to Donate to Baldacci campaign!”, Billings suggested Republicans attend an Oct. 16 Baldacci fundraiser featuring former President Bill Clinton.

Because the Baldacci campaign has raised more than $404,000, any future contributions will trigger matching funds for Woodcock, Green Independent Pat LaMarche and independent Barbara Merrill, all of whom are running publicly financed campaigns.

Billings suggested that it would be a good strategy for Republicans to buy tickets for the Clinton event.

“So if you want to defeat Baldacci, you should give Baldacci $500 so his opponents will get a total of $1,500. That’s a 3 to 1 return on your money!,” Billings wrote.

Some viewers took the online conversation pretty seriously. Billings adds another post later that explains that the state’s Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices could consider such a ploy and deny matching funds to the other candidates.

“Certainly, I intended it to be tongue-in-check,” Billings said Monday after the posts had gotten the attention of the other campaigns. “I won’t be writing a check to Gov. Baldacci.”

Billings said he meant the post to be a comment on the bizarre way the system works.

The Clinton fundraiser will be from 2-4 p.m. Oct. 16 at The Abromson Community Education Center at the University of Southern Maine in Portland. Tickets are $250 and $500.

Forwarding address

Home might be where the heart is, but it’s not where party ID comes from.

Nelson Foley is an independent candidate running for the state Senate in District 13, but he lives on Republican Avenue in Oxford.

Is he sending a mixed message to voters? Is he trying to show his bipartisan or tri-partisan potential appeal?

Whatever the subliminal message might be, it’s a better choice for a politician than living on Jackass Annie Road in Minot. That’s a moniker that nobody who chases votes wants to see stick.

Youth vote

It’s not the League of Conservation voters, the League of Women Voters or the Justice League. It’s just The League, formerly the League of Pissed-Off Voters, and this year it has endorsed U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, a Democrat, for re-election in Maine’s 1st Congressional District.

Allen is being challenged by Republican Darlene Curley and independent Dexter Kamilewicz.

The League is based in Portland and tries to engage young people in the political process.

Now, an endorsement from the Justice League – that would be cool. Alas, too many members of that League have questionable citizenship status. Superman and the Martian Manhunter, after all, weren’t born in the United States, and Wonder Woman and Aquaman are foreign – really foreign – royalty. Best they don’t get involved in politics.

Friends in snow places

Margaret Gould Wescott has joined the re-election campaign of state Rep. Janet Mills, a Farmington Democrat.

Wescott, a teacher at the University of Maine at Farmington, is also the mother of Seth B. Wescott, who won the 2006 Olympic Gold Medal in Snowboard Cross.

Wescott replaces longtime Farmington historian and UMF icon Gwilym Roberts, who served as treasurer for Mills’ successful campaigns in 2002 and 2004 and who has since passed away.

Mills faces Republican Lance Harvell, who has twice challenged her for the seat, in November.