My legislator, Mike Nadeau, posted on facebook that the Democrats in the house voted to increase clean election funds in order "to allow candidates to have a tax payer funded party after an election.
Having read the bill, LD 1309, I don't see anything that says this. Of course, the comment by Nadeau is ridiculous, probably one of his Republicans mates told him this. I do believe he himself took public funds.
While you can argue for or against The Maine Clean Elections Act, it was approved by a Maine citizens initiative in 1996 to help remove special interest money from elections. Of course many candidates ditched the clean election choice after the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are people in the Citizens United ruling. Without public funds they don't have the strictures against taking private money so they can buy the election if they want. Increasing the amount of funds given would be a way to lure some candidates back into the fold and keep our elections more honest.
But honesty is not the strong suit of Rep Mike Nadeau, so instead he chose to titillate his facebook psychophants by this idiotic comment. Not only did he send out a bogus mailing during his 2012 campaign stating that he was endorsed by the NRA, but funds were illegally spent on his behalf by an organization that his campaign treasurer, Phil Soucy, was also treasurer of. This violates Clean Election rules. Incidentally, Mike has stated he will not be a Clean Election Candidate next time around.
-Nat
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