Press Contact
LaMarche Campaign Takes Ethics Appeal to the High Court
Portland, Maine — The LaMarche Campaign will present its case before the Maine Supreme Court today (Tuesday, October 31) at 2:00 pm in Court Room 12 of the Cumberland County Court House in Portland, Maine.
"This is the only state with even a marginally working clean elections system, which is why the two parties worked so hard to corrupt it." |
At issue were a series of advertisements in support of Chandler Woodcock and John Baldacci produced and paid for by the Republican Governor's Association and the Maine Democratic Party. They are campaign-style ads that clearly support the Baldacci and Woodcock candidacies. In the case of the RGA, the commission ruled that because the ads did not use the words "vote" or "for" but merely said "Woodcock, Governor," they were not expressly advocating for Woodcock's election.
Maine's ten-year-old clean elections law is intended to reduce the influence of special interests in Maine politics. Candidates are given basic funds for their campaigns, but if a non-clean elections candidate exceeds that basic amount, a commensurate amount is given to the clean election opponent to level the playing field. Expenditures from so-called third parties, such as political action committees or political parties on behalf on any candidate in a race also trigger additional funding for other clean elections candidates in that race.
"This is the only state with even a marginally working clean elections system, which is why the two parties worked so hard to corrupt it," stated gubernatorial candidate LaMarche.
