March 28, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Clean Elections challenge

The National Right To Life Political Action Committee announced this week that it would challenge on First Amendment grounds Maine’s new Clean Elections Act. But the anti-abortion PAC has another equally strong reason for filing suit against Maine and its act that attempts to restore political power to the average voter.

The Clean Elections Act, approved in Novemeber by 56 percent of the voters, is a voluntary measure that limits the amount of money a candidate may accept, offering in its place public funding to qualified candidates. The act, which applies to candidates for governor and the state House and Senate, requires candidates to collect a set amount of signatures and $5 contributions to qualify for the public funding.

Major-party candidates should be able to meet the signature requirements, but third-party politicians will have a more difficult time, especially in gubernatorial races. To receive funding in a race for governor, a candiate must collect 2,500 signatures and $5 donations, a level that many third-party candidates will not reach. This should be of particular concern to right-to-life groups.

Neither major party has offered a pro-life gubernatorial candidate in the general election since 1982, and neither likely will in the near future. Pro-life advocates must count on third-party candidates to promote their cause. Taxpayers Party candidate Bill Clarke was the only pro-life candidate, for instance, in this year’s U.S. Senate race in Maine, in which he ran against eventual winner Republican Susan Collins and against Democrat Joe Brennan and Green John Rensenbrink. Though it would not have been covered by the act, the race offers an example of where pro-life advocates might find support in general elections.

Though nothing indicates that it was the intention of the supporters of the Clean Elections Act to make life difficult for third parties, that may be the result of their reform. As interesting as the First Amendment arguments for pro-life advocates may be, they have a more pratical reason for being wary of the act.


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