Code of election ethics

As long as voters respond positively to negative campaigning, nothing will stop politicians from engaging in it. But candidates can be shamed into backing off a bit by being reminded of a code of elections ethics that they signed when their campaign races were young and had not assumed the desperate, career-stopping frenzy of late October.

It is impossible to say exactly how bad last year’s elections would have gone if candidates had not signed a Maine code of ethics, created last year at the Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan. All the candidates in the general election signed it and some of them followed it. Among those was Rep. John Baldacci, who liked the idea of the code so much that he has introduced legislation to make the Maine code a national phenomenon. A resolution of his in the House would give all candidates and members of the public the opportunity to introduce the code and use it to add civility to campaigns.

The code is straightforward. It has candidates agree to abide by a series of good-government statements. Among those are the following:

“I shall emphasize my views, beliefs and experiences. …

“I shall not use or agree to let third parties use subtle deceptions, half-truths, falsifications or such practices as push polling. …

“I shall avoid demeaning references to my opponents and demeaning visual images of my opponents.”

Agreeing to these statements and abiding by them are different things. But this is where a well-publicized effort to keep politicians on track could be useful. Voters who think a politician has treated the signing of a code of ethics as a photo op can wave the document under his or her nose as a reminder of the promises made in the code. No politician wants to be caught cheating on such explicit instructions.

That is perhaps the most useful part of the code of ethics. It allows voters to get involved directly in bringing civility to campaigns. It offers a way to take some of the issue-diverting venom away from politicians.