To the Editor:
Sitting at the Clean Elections petition table on primary day offered some interesting discussions. Many people were grateful to be able to modify an existing law in order to obtain disclosures of the large out-of-state donors, who withhold disclosure of their donors.
One individual was not interested in signing the petition because he “doesn’t believe in clean elections.” You might ask, “Does that mean he prefers dirty elections?” While humorous and a natural antonym, without an inquiry or further discussion it would be hard to say.
“Clean Elections” is a method that chooses to avoid the waste of inordinate amounts of money for someone who wants to serve the people. It avoids the implied obligation when a person or group of persons provide you with more money than you have ever seen in a single year – perhaps a lifetime – just to put you in office. It also holds you accountable as it expects that all donors will be disclosed.
Mainers value transparency and the opportunity for anyone who is called to serve the people to have the same playing field to convince the people that they are the best candidate for that job.
Traditional methods for getting candidate messages to the voter were financed by friends, neighbors and the party. Abe Lincoln was a traditional candidate who achieved this task and became president.
When a candidate may choose not to obey the rules for running a clean election he is falsely categorized as a “traditional fundraiser” since he sets himself up for receipt of outside large dollars sometimes referred to as dark money.
The term “dark money” is only there because a recent Supreme Court decision gave corporations personhood with all the rights of “free speech” that money could buy, but without the right to vote as a corporation.
Clean Elections, as being proposed on the people’s initiative, would help level the dollar playing field, and make the donor list transparent to Mainers.
