Ex-speaker defends suspension of Green party staffer last year

AUGUSTA – Former Maine House Speaker Patrick Colwell has defended his decision to suspend a legislative Green party staffer last year and denied there was any attempt to tarnish the image of the state’s burgeoning third party just before a statewide election.

Colwell, who now serves as executive director of the Maine Democratic Party, made his remarks Friday in the aftermath of Tuesday’s acquittal of former Maine Green Independent Party campaign worker Ben Chipman by a York County Superior Court jury.

The panel deliberated for about an hour before concluding the one-time legislative aide to Green party state Rep. John Eder of Portland was not guilty of attempting to influence a voter before a special election last year.

Eder and other Greens were suspicious of Colwell’s decision to suspend Chipman after Democratic Attorney General Steven Rowe decided to bring criminal charges against Chipman and three others.

The group was working on a February 2004 special election campaign for Green party House candidate Dorothy Lafortune of Biddeford.

Chipman said the publicity ensuing from Colwell’s press release regarding his suspension and Rowe’s indictments – both of which took place within a month of the November general election – may have cast a shadow over several other legislative Green campaigns across the state.

“We certainly believe that the timing of those indictments was no coincidence and was certainly politically motivated,” Chipman said.

The Maine Attorney General’s Office has rejected the notion of any effort to time the development of its case with the pending November election.

Colwell agreed, saying his decision to suspend Chipman was motivated by his responsibility to protect the integrity of the institution as the presiding officer of the House.

“The idea of anyone being a victim here is purely political posturing,” Colwell said. “There was none of that political gamesmanship that occurred. We were all very concerned about making sure that the people of the state of Maine have absolute certainty that when they vote, their vote counts and that they will not be coerced into voting one way or the other. He’s had his day in court and the jury deemed him innocent. It’s a new day for Mr. Chipman and I wish him well.”

Chipman said Friday he hopes to regain his position for Eder at the State House, but will never accept the suggestion that Maine’s Democratic leaders did not pursue the indictments for the purposes of embarrassing the Green party.

“The Democratic Attorney General’s Office put an awful lot of time and effort into trying to contact some 200 voters,” he said. “I wonder how much of the taxpayers’ money was spent trying to prosecute me as an innocent person for something I didn’t do.”

One of Chipman’s three associates in the Lafortune campaign, however, has not fared as well.

According to an Associated Press report, Fred Dolgon of Old Orchard Beach was found guilty in May of two counts of trying to influence a voter and acquitted on three others.

Wayne Whitten of Biddeford is awaiting trial on an identical charge, and Philip Castora of Arundel is scheduled to go to trial in September on a forgery charge in connection with the same incident.