Pingree fails the test

With our state and our nation facing extremely complex issues, voting wisely is hard work. Fortunately, in choosing among candidates, there is one easily understood benchmark:

Is the candidate straightforward with the public or does the candidate say one thing and do another?

Among this year’s crop of political aspirants, one clearly fails this test – Chellie Pingree.

From the start, Pingree and her allies have attacked Susan Collins for taking money from pharmaceutical companies. One problem with the Pingree attack, however, lies in who has funded it.

The attack ads on Collins are run by the Maine Democratic Party which gets substantial funding from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, however, has received $1.5 million from the pharmaceutical industry. In short, the Pingree forces are using money from the drug makers to attack Susan Collins for taking money from the drug makers.

This might be forgivable if it were an isolated act. Unfortunately, it is part of a pattern.

Pingree also attacks Collins for big campaign contributions and promotes herself as a campaign finance reformer. In particular, she says that she supports the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill. At the same time, however, she is engaging in a practice that drove Sen. John McCain to devote a considerable part of his political life to campaign finance reform.

The problem is this: A major loophole in the campaign finance laws governing this year’s elections is the “joint fund-raising committee,” which is established by a national political party in the name of a specific candidate. The only purpose of a joint fund-raising committee is to enable the candidate to evade the maximum individual campaign contribution limit of $2,000 ($1,000 for the primary election, $1,000 for the general election). John McCain has described this loophole by saying, “the device enables the wealthy to funnel tens of thousands of dollars to a campaign, purchasing a level of influence that the vast majority of Americans could never afford.”

Pingree has established a joint fund-raising committee; Collins, an early supporter of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill, has not. The McCain-Feingold bill, which prohibits this practice, was recently passed by Congress and signed by President George W. Bush. Even so, Pingree has adopted the very joint-funding raising committee device McCain-Feingold prohibits. The Pingree excuse is that the McCain-Feingold bill does not take effect until after the election. In other words, Pingree is using the very fund-raising device she publicly deplores.

As a recent candidate for public office, I can attest to the need that any campaign has for money. Therefore, the temptation to engage in such practices exists for any campaign. Even so, not only did my campaign reject this practice, but I am unaware of any campaign for federal office in Maine, Republican or Democratic, that has used this loophole other than the Pingree campaign.

A review of the results of her fund-raising explains her inconsistency. Through this loophole, Pingree has received some massive contributions. One wealthy individual alone has given her more than $100,000. By contrast, Collins has refused to take advantage of the loophole, and has limited individual contributors to no more than $2,000. That means that Pingree’s largest contributor has made a donation more than 50 times larger than the largest individual contribution Collins has received. In fact, Pingree’s top five donors have given $273,000, which is $263,000 more than the $10,000 that Collins has received from her top five contributors.

Here again a further element of the pattern emerges: for Pingree is using these super-sized contributions to help finance attacks on Collins for accepting so-called big-money contributions. The record is clear. Susan Collins’ individual contributions are limited to $2,000 and no more.

Maine voters should be aware of Pingree’s pattern of inconsistency. In considering who should be elected to this highly responsible office, we should not expect her blatantly contradictory conduct to be limited to her campaign. Pingree owes it to Maine voters to practice what she preaches.

John McCain, the prime mover behind campaign finance reform, said it best. “Clever individuals can always find excuses for saying one thing and doing another, but in the final analysis, our country is far better served when led by people with good values rather than good excuses.”

Tim Woodcock is an attorney and a former mayor of Bangor.