Dear Editor:

Several recent articles and letters criticized local candidates for using Maine’s Clean Elections system. I wonder, would these people rather have candidates’ campaigns financed by special interests and wealthy individuals?

Unfortunately, the governor and his followers seem to loath Clean Elections. They tried to starve the program this year by withholding funding, but Maine Superior Court Justice William Stokes ordered the funds to be released.

Clean Elections shouldn’t be a partisan issue. Maine voters passed the original Clean Elections law by referendum in 1996; leaders from both major parties embraced the system. Since then, hundreds of Maine candidates have run “clean.”

It takes work. A Maine House candidate who chooses to use the program must collect 60 signatures and 60 five-dollar Clean Elections contributions from people within the district. A Maine Senate candidate must collect 175 signatures with accompanying five-dollar contributions.

A traditionally funded candidate could have her entire campaign bankrolled by one or two wealthy donors (or themselves, if rich enough), while a Clean Elections candidate has to prove broad support by collecting all those five-dollar donations.

Once a candidate meets the requirement, she is entitled to receive money to run her campaign from the Clean Elections Fund. The money’s not huge—enough to buy road signs and palm cards—barely ten thousand dollars for House candidates and sixty thousand dollars for Senate candidates. The candidate must not take any money from any other source, including her own bank account. The Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics keeps watch over this, requiring frequent financial reports to make sure the rules are followed.

The result? Maine enjoys the benefit of a "citizen legislature" made up of many regular working people, which means members of the legislature truly reflect the constituents they represent.

In Lincoln County, Dana Dow (R) and Laura Fortman (D), the two candidates for Maine Senate, are running under the Clean Elections system, as are all the Democratic Maine House candidates. Voters can feel confident that these candidates are beholden to no one except the residents of their district. That’s a good feeling to have during election season.

Barbara Burt

Boothbay Harbor