Brewer senator speaks on Clean Elections Act

AUGUSTA – Sen. Ed Youngblood, R-Brewer, has testified before a joint Minnesota House and Senate meeting on campaign finance reform. Youngblood was among the candidates who campaigned under the voluntary publicly financed system, the Maine Clean Elections Act.

The law was passed as a citizen-initiated referendum in 1996; 17 out of the 35 members of the Senate were elected after running as Clean Elections candidates. According to Youngblood, the opportunity to run as a Clean Elections candidate was an important part of his decision to run for the Maine Senate.

Youngblood left for Minnesota after Thursday’s legislative session. His trip was financed by the Minnesota legislature in order to hear the perspective of Maine’s legislators who ran under the Clean Elections Act.

Youngblood’s testimony was televised and broadcast as a live webcast on the Internet. It has been archived by the Minnesota House of Representatives and can be seen on the Internet at http://ww3.house.leg.state.mn.us/htv/schedule.asp.