State may review election mailing Anti-gay postcard sent during special House election raises ethics concerns

BIDDEFORD – The state ethics panel may investigate the origin of a mysterious postcard in this week’s special House election, but the target of the campaign mailing said he is content to drop the matter.

The postcard claimed that Democratic nominee Stephen Beaudette had the endorsement of an apparently fictitious group called the Coalition for Homosexual Marriage in Maine.

The mailing read, “Support Homosexuals by Voting Democrat in Biddeford February 3rd!” and “We Deserve a Wedding!”

Beaudette, who does not support gay marriage, won the three-way race for the seat vacated by state Rep. Marie Laverriere-Boucher, taking 62 percent of the vote.

Although Beaudette said he will not press for an inquiry, Jonathan Wayne, executive director of the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices, plans to present the issue at a meeting Wednesday.

Wayne said election mailings must be reported to the ethics commission, and that independent groups like the purported Coalition for Homosexual Marriage must register before injecting themselves into a campaign.

Neither has happened in this case, he said, and the violations of ethics law could bring a $5,000 penalty if the commission decides to investigate.

Wayne cautioned, however, that it may be difficult to track down who paid for the mailing.

Democrats and Republicans both blamed the mailing on Green Independent Party candidate Dorothy Lafortune, who was evicted by a SWAT team from her home last November.

Brian Pooler, who received only 33 votes as the Republican candidate in the race, theorized that the mailing may have been an attempt to drive Beaudette voters to the GOP, because “the Green Party didn’t see me as a threat.”

But Lafortune denied backing the mailing, saying she ran a clean campaign. And Ben Chipman, Lafortune’s campaign manager and a legislative aide to Green Independent Rep. John Eder, said the party supports gay rights and would be the last group to fund anti-gay literature.

The postcard, which arrived in mailboxes just a day before a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling legalized gay marriage, injected a divisive cultural and political issue into what had been a relatively quiet race.

Betsy Smith, executive director of the Maine Lesbian-Gay Political Alliance, said she was not surprised to see the issue surface.

“It’s an issue that’s at center stage right now nationally,” she said. “And it’s an issue that some people don’t think fondly of and will use to their advantage.”

But Smith said she can’t recall when gay rights were injected into a campaign in which none of the candidates was gay and gay issues had not come up.

Smith said she had no doubt that the Coalition for Homosexual Marriage was a false front.

“You never find a gay rights group using the word homosexual,” she said.

“That’s what our opponents call us.”