Andrew Bossie, Moyers & Company- Almost
20 years ago, Maine voters approved a transformative initiative to put
elections back where they belong, in the hands of everyday people...
Under this Clean Election Act, legislative candidates who demonstrate
broad support can choose to qualify for public funds for their campaign
by collecting a large number of small contributions and agreeing to
forgo raising large contributions.
It worked well for several
cycles. Hundreds of candidates were able to run and win office without
prostrating themselves before big donors and lobbyists. Farmers,
waitresses, and others who usually can’t make their voice heard in
politics were able to go to Maine’s state capital Augusta and represent
their constituents free from the influence of special interest cash.
The
Clean Election Act has allowed Mainers to have a government that’s
truly reflective and accountable to the voters. A 2007 study conducted
by the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices,
showed that seven out of 10 women said that having the Clean Election
Act was very important in their decision to run for office and that more
women ran for office as a result of public financing....
In the
2014 book, White-Collar Government, author Nicholas Carnes praises Maine
as having the most blue-collar legislature in the country, with one out
of seven state representatives holding blue-collar jobs. He goes on to
draw a correlation between Maine’s strong public policy geared toward
working-class people and our citizen-led legislature of diverse economic
backgrounds.
At one point, a full 85 percent of the legislature
was elected using Clean Elections, but then the United States Supreme
Court got in the way. In a one-two punch of decisions, Arizona Free
Enterprise v. Bennett and Citizens United v. FEC, the Supreme Court made
it harder for publicly financed candidates to compete with
newly-empowered outside groups.
As a result, on Election Day
2014, just over half of the winning candidates used the Clean Election
Act to fund their campaigns. Fortunately, something else happened that
day — Mainers fought back... This January, we submitted over 85,000
signatures to the Secretary of State, more than enough to put a question
on the ballot this November.
At the press conference announcing
the signatures, former Republican State Senator Ed Youngblood said, “So
much about politics is about divisions, but in this Clean Election
endeavor, we are Mainers first. Republicans like me worked alongside
Democrats, Greens and unenrolled voters to collect these signatures.
That is a reflection of the widespread concern about the skyrocketing
cost of elections and the growing role of Big Money.”
The ballot
initiative is straightforward. We’re asking voters to approve changes to
the law that will restore the viability of Clean Elections, so we can
once again have a government that is accountable to everyday voters, and
not bought and paid for by wealthy special interests. When enacted,
this initiative will shine a light on dark money in our elections by
strengthening disclosure and transparency laws. It would also raise
fines and penalties on those that break our campaign finance laws – a
practice which lately has become all too common.
Andrew Bossie is executive director of Maine Citizens for Clean Elections
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