Judge: Clean Election rule invalid
A federal judge has ruled part of Maine's Clean Election law unconstitutional, following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a similar Arizona law.
U.S. District Court Judge George Singal yesterday invalidated the portion of Maine's law that gives publicly funded candidates more funds if they are outspent by privately funded competitors, according to The Associated Press. He based his ruling on last month's Supreme Court decision that deemed a similar provision in Arizona a violation of the First Amendment because matching funds "inhibit robust and wide-open political debate without sufficient justification." Singal's ruling stems from a lawsuit filed last August by state Rep. Andre Cushing of Hampden, former state Rep. Harold Clough of Scarborough and the Respect Maine PAC, backed by the Maine Heritage Policy Center and an out-of-state free speech organization. Cushing was a privately financed candidate whose opponents received extra public money because of how much he raised and spent, according to The AP.
The Legislature is already considering a bill to rework Maine's Clean Election Act. The bill directs the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices, which handles the Clean Election program, to study the ruling and suggest changes to Maine's law to a legislative committee by Dec. 1.
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