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The Good and the Bad in the Maine Legislature (No Ugly, Yet)
Published on January 21, 2009
Category: Petition Rights, Taxpayer Financed Campaigns
Maine State Representative Richard Cebra has introduced legislation that would repeal the Pine Tree State's so-called "clean elections" program. First enacted in time for the 2000 election cycle, the program has failed on nearly every count:
- Taxpayers have not saved money under "clean elections"
- The number of lobbyists in Maine has not declined under "clean elections"
- The number of women elected under "clean elections" has actually declined
- The number of citizens from "non-traditional" backgrounds has not increased under "clean elections"
Kudos to Representative Cebra for his efforts to end this wasteful and failed system.
On the other hand, petition circulators in Maine had best beware if Representative Mark Bryant gets legislation through limiting who can ask citizens to sign petitions. Our friends at Citizens in Charge have sent a letter to Representative Bryant warning of the danger his bill poses:
An Open Letter to Representative Mark Bryant: Stop the Unconstitutional Assault on Citizen Rights
January 16, 2009
Dear Representative Bryant:
On behalf of the citizens of Maine, who highly value their First Amendment rights to petition their government, I write to urge you to immediately withdraw your emergency act titled, "An Act to Promote the Integrity of Citizens' Initiatives" (HP0023, LD 28).
First, emergency legislation should be reserved for real emergencies - natural disasters, economic catastrophes and serious injustices that must be swiftly addressed come to mind...
More importantly, your emergency legislation requiring petition gathers to be registered voters in the state is, on its face, an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment rights of Maine citizens. Mainers should be able to work with other Mainers to advance their political beliefs without an arbitrary restriction that they all be registered to vote. Not only does our organization believe this, but the highest legal authority in the land, the U.S. Supreme Court, has already so ruled.
In Buckley v. ACLF (1999) the High Court held that a Colorado law requiring petition circulators to be registered voters "Beyond question...drastically reduces the number of persons, both volunteer and paid, available to circulate petitions." The Court went on to say "that requirement produces a speech diminution."
... I hope that with this new information you will act in the people's best interest in promoting and protecting Maine's First Amendment rights of citizens and the ballot initiative process...by withdrawing your legislation.
Sincerely,
Paul Jacob
President, Citizens in Charge Foundation
It would appear that when deciding whether to expand or limit the First Amendment, Maine legislators are taking "a little from Column A, a little from Column B," to borrow from Grandpa Simpson. Fortunately Maine is a beautiful state, so I don't think we at CCP will be complaining too much about traveling to Augusta to educate legislators there about the finer points of the First Amendment and the complete failure of their program to allow politicians to stuff their campaign coffers with taxpayer dollars.
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