For the third election in a row, about 80 percent of legislative candidates opted to fund their campaigns through the Maine Clean Election Act, shunning private donations for public funding.
The process puts donations and expenditures for all candidates under a public microscope. Online reports maintained by the Maine Ethics Commission trace money from its source – which could range from a $20 bill from the woman next door to millions of corporate dollars given to political action committees – to whatever it’s spent on.
The last of two major reporting deadlines before the election passed at midnight Friday, though candidates and political action committees (PACs) are required to file reports every 24 hours until Nov. 3, chronicling last-minute spending and possibly last-ditch efforts to win a seat in the State House.
When a privately financed candidate spends money, any Clean Election Act opponents receive a check for that amount. It can be tempting to withhold reports until it’s too late for an opponent to be able to use the money, which is why Paul Lavin, assistant director of the ethics commission, and his staff are watching filings so closely.
“We ask additional questions, like ‘why are you just filing this now?'” said Lavin. “There needs to be some lead time.”
Of 331 candidates who entered primary season, there are 303 left, and about 80 percent of those opted for clean election funding. That percentage is virtually the same as it was in the past two elections. There were 52 House of Representatives candidates and 17 Senators who are using private funding in 2008.
For the senate as of Monday, privately funded campaigns spent as much as the high total of $30,205, which was spent by Republican Gerald M. Davis of Falmouth for the District 11 Senate seat formerly held by Republican Sen. Karl Turner.
The top five spenders for senate seat were Davis; Sen. Bill Diamond (D-Cumberland), $20,872; Sen. Debra D. Plowman (R-Penobscot), $12,330; Sen. Nancy Sullivan (D-York), $10,165; and Sen. Kevin Raye (R-Washington), $8857.
For seats in the House of Representatives, the five top-spending candidates were Republican Andre Cushing III of Hampden for the District 39 seat (Dixmont, Hampden and Newburgh), $17,083; Rep. Meredith Strang Burgess (R-Cumberland), $13,715; Rep. Richard R. Cebra (R-Naples), $11,581; Brian Bicknell of Yarmouth, for the District 107 seat (Yarmouth), $10,551; and Republican Richard S. Malaby of Hancock, for the District 34 seat (Gouldsboro, Hancock, Lamoine, Sorrento, Sullivan, Waltham, Winter Harbor, and Fletchers Landing Township), $7438.
The state, as of Saturday, had paid $128,595 in matching funds to candidates for the House of Representatives and $176,886 for Senate candidates for a total of more than $305,000 in matches.
(Statehouse News Service)
