Maine Has It's Own Share Of Problems With Politicos!

From The Maine Wire

Editorial: Pingree’s Folly- An End to ‘Clean Elections’, At Last

Chellie Pingree was Maine Senate President when the Maine Clean Elections Act (MCEA) became law. Pingree has made a career out of this law – parlaying her role in its inception into a position as head of the advocacy group Common Cause, and ultimately using it as rhetorical cover for her own significant campaign finance abuses. Besides offering the Congresswoman an opportunity to engage in hypocrisy of the highest magnitude, Maine’s Clean Election Act has failed to offer the slightest positive impact.

The original intent of the law was fairly simple – to reduce the impact of money on politics, and to engage a broader sector of the electorate in the democratic process. Since the law went into effect, Maine taxpayers have paid millions to finance the political ambitions of hundreds of candidates. This has neither reduced the impact of outside money, nor has it impacted the participation levels of voters or candidates.

Studies have shown that Maine’s Clean Elections Act has failed to reduce the stranglehold of incumbents, it has failed to bring more ‘non-traditional’ (ie-non-lawyers) candidates into office, and it has failed to bring more women into elected office, all goals identified by proponents of the Act. The MCEA has also utterly failed to reduce the impact of money on elections. The proliferation of PACs and independent expenditures has made the Clean Elections Act a caricature of failed progressive policy, allowing candidates to proclaim independence from outside money while at the same time funneling tens of thousands of lobbyist and corporate money into so-called ‘leadership PACs’.

Besides not living up to the goals of the Act’s proponents, the concept behind clean elections is a travesty to begin with. Forcing taxpayers to fund the political ambitions of candidates they don’t even support is a disgraceful idea, and one that could only be propagated by an innately corrupt political culture. Think of the audacity of an incumbent candidate believing the constituents of his district should foot the bill for his television ads or campaign pamphlets.

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