Maine Legislature opts for status quo on campaign finance regulations

Yahoo

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Supporters of campaign finance reform listen as members of Congress discuss a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to contributions and expenditures intended to affect elections outside the U.S. Capitol September 8, 2014 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by)
The Maine Legislature largely opted to maintain the status quo regarding campaign finance regulations this year, rejecting attempts to expand clean elections, require more transparency into who is spending in elections and ban direct corporate contributions to candidates.
The most common reasons cited by lawmakers, who voted down many of these bills in committee before the proposals even reached the chambers, were the tight budget year and that the plans didn't get to the root causes of money in politics.
'We really took this as that campaign finance reform was not a priority at all during this legislative session in a time where money and politics is rampant and at an all time high,' said Al Cleveland, advocacy director for Democracy Maine, a collaboration of nonpartisan organizations focused on making government more equitable.
Before the Legislature's Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee voted down one of the bills that sought to require the disclosure of the original source of what's frequently referred to as 'dark money,' discussion illuminated a sense of resignation on this topic held by lawmakers.
'I don't think all the laws that we pass are going to change money in politics,' said Sen. Jeff Timberlake (R-Androscoggin) during the April 16 work session. 'It's the way of life now. I wish it wasn't.'
Rep. Anne Graham (D-North Yarmouth) offered a similar view, pointing to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2010, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which overturned century-old campaign finance restrictions by allowing corporations and unions to spend unlimited funds on elections.
'The reality is,' Graham said, 'until Congress repeals Citizens United, we're faced with this dilemma.'
The rejection of these bills comes at a time when there is a strong appetite for change among the public. Maine voters overwhelmingly passed laws in the past two general elections to place stricter regulations on money in politics, with both including measures aimed at overturning Citizens United in different ways. However, those changes have so far been blocked as legal battles play out in the courts.
On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit sided with the plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits against the 2023 law, which prohibited foreign government spending in elections. The judge ruled the law is likely unconstitutional and affirmed the district court's preliminary injunction.
Maine Legislature eyes campaign finance reforms as courts weigh voter-backed referenda
'I think our state lawmakers are often left unsure how to handle the big, big issues and so then they fear that the smaller reforms won't be as effective as all their dreams might be,' Cleveland said. 'But, if we're going to ever get to a place where we can truly instigate true campaign finance reform and really reduce the money on politics, we need to have all of these different policies in place already.'
With restrictions on the types of bills that can be introduced during the second regular session that begins next year, and given that lawmakers already considered and rejected campaign finance-related proposals, it is now unlikely for major change to be reconsidered, at least legislatively, until the next Legislature in 2027.
Two bills on this topic did pass, though offer only small tweaks within the existing campaign finance landscape.
LD 9, submitted by Sen. Craig Hickman (D-Kennebec) on behalf of the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices, raises penalties for what are considered 'straw' donations, which are already illegal in Maine but difficult to detect. These are donations funneled to support or oppose a specific political group or candidate through an intermediary, however the name of the original donor is not disclosed.
For example, in November 2023, the commission completed an enforcement proceeding regarding a $150,000 donation from Alpine Initiatives through an intermediary to the Maine Democratic Party. At that time, the actual donor was not disclosed.
This new law will also require that the name of a person or group who paid more than $500 for a campaign text expressly advocating for or against a candidate has to be included in the text so the public knows who is behind it.
The other bill, LD 390, sponsored by Sen. Stacy Brenner (D-Cumberland), levels the playing field for enrolled and unenrolled candidates when it comes to qualifying contributions.
Because unenrolled candidates don't have primary races, they'd previously only had the general election period to reach the cap on funds they're allowed to accept from any one person, whereas enrolled candidates had two periods due to primaries and therefore the opportunity to raise more.
While the bill initially sought to raise the contribution limit of independent candidates, the version passed took the approach of instead providing both types of candidates two election periods.
Anticipating some people would argue the bill increases the role of money in politics, Brenner said when presenting it to the committee, 'I agree that money in politics is a concern. But, within the system we have, the rules must be fair.'
Meanwhile, bills that sought to expand clean elections, ban corporate contributions to candidates and require more transparency into who is spending in elections all failed.
It seems like the one thing that Democrats and Republicans can agree on is keeping the current dysfunctional system in place.
– Sen. Rick Bennett (R-Oxford)
Clean Elections
Maine was a pioneer in public campaign financing but has rejected recent attempts to further expand clean elections.
In 2000, Maine became one of two states to implement a clean elections model of campaign finance reform, marking the first time candidates for statewide offices — governor, state senator and state representative — were able to fully fund their campaigns with public money.
This session, three separate attempts to expand the program to more offices failed.
LD 118, sponsored by Sen. Rick Bennett (R-Oxford) and bipartisan co-sponsors, would have allowed candidates for district attorney and sheriff to participate. Last legislative session, lawmakers passed a narrower bill to allow candidates for just district attorney to participate, but Gov. Janet Mills did not sign the proposal or any of the bills the Legislature enacted when lawmakers reconvened for the final day of the session in 2024.
'We have lost ground,' Bennett told Maine Morning Star, 'and I think there is a sense of fatalistic capitulation to the dysfunctional status quo, which is prevailing in the Legislature these days.'
Meanwhile, LD 1787 had initially proposed adding district attorney, sheriff and county commissioners to the program. But lawmakers removed those sections and instead passed the bill solely as a measure to change the amount of 'seed money' gubernatorial candidates can receive, which is private money that candidates can raise to get their campaign off the ground and qualify for clean elections.
Efforts to expand Maine clean elections reckon with currently inadequate program funding
LD 454, sponsored by Sen. Joe Baldacci (D-Penobscot), would have added candidates for secretary of state and attorney general to the program, contingent on those constitutional officers being changed to popularly elected positions.
Maine is an outlier in having its Legislature appoint constitutional officers and state auditors. All of the bills that sought to switch the system to allowing the public to decide through a direct popular election failed this year, so LD 454 ultimately couldn't become law either.
Some Democrats said that they would have supported the switch if the offices were elected through ranked-choice voting, a system Maine voters passed in 2016 to allow voters to rank political candidates for governor, state legislature and Congress by preference.
Meanwhile, most Republicans would likely be against having such offices elected through ranked-choice voting. Separately, the Legislature rejected a bill proposed by Republicans this year that sought to do away with ranked-choice voting altogether.
Baldacci told Maine Morning Star he's interested in introducing a bill in the future that incorporates all three components — popular election, clean elections and ranked-choice voting — but he doesn't see that as an option until the next Legislature, if he is reelected in 2026. Given that the general proposal was already rejected this year, he sees it as unlikely legislative leadership would allow him to introduce the three-pronged approach next year.
The budget passed this year provided what has become a typical $3 million allocation for clean elections, however LD 1787 had originally called for increasing funding to $3.5 million, which Cleveland from Democracy Maine described as crucial not only to expand the program but to ensure multiple candidates are able to access the fund each election.
'We're really concerned about the Clean Elections fund not being sustainable,' Cleveland said.
The Maine Ethics Commission has raised concern about allocations not being enough if more than just two gubernatorial candidates run under the program in 2026.
So far only one candidate is running under the program, current Republican Sen. James Libby. Bennett, who is leaving the Republican party to run as an independent for governor, said he chose not to run under clean elections because of fear that there wouldn't be sufficient funding.
'In terms of increasing the Clean Elections fund and expanding clean elections with what the Legislature is going to have to deal with all the federal budget cuts, there is probably not going to be a lot of political room to make that happen,' Cleveland said, referring to President Donald Trumps' spending bill, 'but we will continue advocating and educating about it.'
Who can spend and who knows about it
In 2021, Maine passed a law that made several changes to campaign finance law, including banning direct corporate contributions to candidates and leadership PACs, which are controlled by legislators. But lawmakers repealed the law shortly after in 2023, with some supporters arguing it was unfair to businesses and others that the law lacked clarity.
This year, LD 1350 attempted to reinstate the part of the law that banned corporate contributions, but it was unanimously rejected by the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee and both chambers later followed suit.
Currently, 23 states completely prohibit corporations from contributing to political campaigns, and federal law prohibits such direct contributions in connection to federal elections.
Bennett reintroduced a bill to increase transparency regarding who spends money in elections, but it died again this year, also after being unanimously rejected by the committee.
The bill, LD 951, would have required political action committees that receive contributions of at least $10,000 from a single contributor and spend more than $50,000 in Maine elections to disclose the original source of those funds. It was based on a similar law in Arizona.
Donors frequently obscure their political activity by giving to a politically oriented nonprofit, which then donates money to a candidate. Ordinarily, campaign disclosure laws would only list the nonprofit as the source of the money.
Maine Citizens for Clean Elections supported this measure, with attorney John Brautigam pointing the committee to polls that show Americans of all political persuasions overwhelmingly support disclosure of such donations. But the Maine Education Association, Maine Conservation Voters, Planned Parenthood and other groups were opposed, arguing the requirements in LD 951 go too far and threaten the personal safety contributors.
'It seems like the one thing that Democrats and Republicans can agree on is keeping the current dysfunctional system in place,' Bennett told Maine Morning Star. 'Any one of these things by themselves won't do it, but we do need a different approach.'
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