AUGUSTA — The Maine ethics commission is scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss what will happen if there’s not enough public money to fund all Clean Election candidates who qualify, but it may be a contingency plan that’s unnecessary if not enough candidates qualify for the funding.

Nine of the 23 candidates for governor in 2010 have indicated they are seeking public funding, though none had qualified, as of Wednesday. Concerns about insufficient funding in the public money account were prompted by the number of gubernatorial hopefuls, though historically about 80 percent of candidates running for the Legislature also use clean election funding.

In order to qualify, gubernatorial candidates have from Oct. 15 to April 1 to collect at least 3,250 checks of $5 each from registered Maine voters. They also must collect $40,000 in seed money from Maine voters, with maximum donations of $100 each.

Sen. Peter Mills, a Republican hopeful, is the only candidate in the race who has qualified for clean election money as a gubernatorial candidate in the past. The Legislature increased the number of $5 checks and raised the seed money threshold last year.

“It really takes nose-to-nose solicitation,” Mills said, adding that gathering the 3,250 $5 checks is proving to be more difficult than collecting the seed money. “We’ve got about $38,000 from Maine contributors, but we stopped worrying about that $100 a few weeks ago. Frankly, I got wound up about these $5 checks; it’s a huge number.”

Mills said he had hoped to collect most of the $5 donations online, via the state Web site set up to allow easy access, but only about 150 of the about 2,200 donations he’s collected have come online.

“The state Web site is not all that easy to use,” he said. “I think everybody is underestimating what it takes — we have dozens and dozens of people who’ve agreed to go out in the evening. Without that body of volunteers, we just wouldn’t even be close. We’ve tried every way of doing it. It’s painfully difficult because it’s so confusing.”

Other candidates said they have had less success meeting the new qualifying thresholds.

Democrat Donna Dion of Biddeford said she had collected only 18 $5 checks.

“For me, it’s been a struggle,” she said, adding that she was still working full time at her day job, which makes it difficult to raise money. “No matter what, I am going to keep operating as a Clean Elections candidate and not take more than $100 from an individual. I’ll run the most efficient campaign ever.”

Christopher Cambron, an unenrolled candidate from Greenbush, who registered as a candidate this week, hadn’t yet collected any checks, though he intends to run with public money, said his wife, Brenda Jean.

Lynne Williams of Bar Harbor, a Green Independent running for the Blaine House, said the new, higher standards have “perverted” the state’s public financing system.

“The spirit of the law is to take money out of politics, and I think this is a travesty to have candidates spending most of their time raising money, rather than meeting with voters,” she said. “I have to say, I don’t know how many $5 checks we have. To date we’ve raised about $15,000 (in seed money).”

The campaigns for three other candidates running for clean election funding, Democrats Pat McGowan, Libby Mitchell and John Richardson, declined to share how many $5 checks they had collected, but all said they had met or were close to meeting the $40,000 in seed money.

Candidates who fail to qualify for public funds can run as traditionally funded candidates.

rmetzler@sunjournal.com

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