2010 is the year it can happen. NOW is the time to start

November 24, 2009

The Maine Green Independent Party has a great opportunity to show national leadership by electing this country’s first Green Party governor, Lynne Williams (http://LynneWilliams2010.org)

The Maine 2010 gubernatorial election is an open seat, as the incumbent governor cannot seek re-election due to Maine’s term limits law. Currently there are 22 candidates registered with the Maine Ethics Commission as potential candidates for governor. The list includes eight Democrats and six Republicans, two Greens and six independents. The Democrats and Republicans will expend a lot of time and money on their primaries, while, according to the Nov. 16, 2009 edition of the Bangor (Maine) Daily News, “Among the Green Independents, Lynne Williams, a lawyer from Bar Harbor, has been making numerous public appearances around the state…” but the other potential Green “is listed as a candidate but says he’s leaning away from running.”

So it seems likely there will be at least three candidates on the ballot — Green, Democrat, and Republican — and there could possibly be as many as six depending on how many unenrolled (independent) candidates file papers. We won’t know the final number until late May 2010, when independent nomination papers are due.

But what we do know is that Maine is a plurality-vote state, meaning the candidate with the most votes on election day wins, even if it’s not by more than 50 percent. In fact only once since 1990 has a Maine governor won election by more than 50 percent, and that one time was an independent incumbent running for re-election in 1998. The lowest percentage win over those years was 35.4 percent. (That was in 1994, when that same independent first ran. Even back then he was able to use the dissatisfaction with the two major parties to win the election. And his victory was not a matter of weak opposition. The Democrat in that race was a former two-term governor and two-term-Congressman. The Republican candidate back then is a U.S. Senator today.)

Maine Greens have fielded candidates in the last four gubernatorial elections in Maine, each time winning higher percentages than the prior election. So this could be a winnable race for the Maine Green Party. It can happen, but not without a lot of work on the part of both enrolled members of the Green Party as well as green-thinking voters who are independents or who are fed up with the political antics of their own party, be it Republican and Democratic.

But it takes money to win a gubernatorial race, even in as small a state as Maine. Unfortunately Greens, and other progressives, don’t live in a culture of big-time political fund-raising. We are definitely not the $1,000-a-plate crowd. But fortunately, Maine is a Clean Election state, where in a 1996 referendum 56 percent of the voters said they wanted Maine to adopt new campaign finance laws that give public funding to candidates for state office who agree to spending limits.

This year, the Maine Ethics Commission says that under the Maine Clean Election Law, a gubernatorial candidate who qualifies will receive $200,000 for an uncontested primary, and at least $600,000 for the general election. In these days of mega-dollar political campaigns, that is not a lot of money, but the Williams campaign believes it will be enough to get Lynne’s message out and, coupled with a strong volunteer base, can be enough to win the election.

However this year the Maine legislature made it much harder to qualify for Clean Election funding.

In previous election cycles, the requirement to obtain Clean Election status was that the campaign had to convince 2.500 registered Maine voters (of any party or unenrolled) to make a $5 contribution directly to the state of Maine’s Clean Election fund. When voters made this contribution, they indicated it was on behalf of a particular candidate. In order to finance this process, gubernatorial candidates were permitted, but not required, to collect up to $50,000 in what is called “seed money.”

But this year, the Democratic-controlled Maine Legislature changed the rules. Now, to qualify, a gubernatorial candidate needs 3,250 registered Maine to voters make a $5 contribution directly to the state on a candidate’s behalf. But in an addition to that, a candidate now MUST raise $40,000 in direct contributions to her campaign, all from registered Maine voters, and all in contributions of $100 or less (non-Clean Election candidates can accept up to $750 from an individual)

The requirement to force Clean Election candidates to raise private money in order to qualify for public funding flies in the face of the original intent of Maine’s law, but the Legislature imposed it anyway. On the record, the legislators who supported this change will tell you they were concerned about the state budget and wanted to find a way to limit the number of candidates who qualified. Reading between the lines, however, it’s easy to make the case that these major party legislators didn’t like the fact that candidates other than Democrats or Republicans were qualifying, thus offering voters an alternatives to the two major-party candidates. And there is also concern that the Legislature is trying to gut the Clean Election law even further, partly because it has made it easier for minor-party and independent candidates to challenge the status quo. Beyond the mandatory $40,000 from in-state voters, it raised the allowable seed money limit to $200,000, which can come from any U.S. citizen, the first indication that the Legislature may refuse to adequately fund the program in 2010, telling candidates they must instead raise more of their own money, a much easier task for the major-party candidates.

As a result, meeting these newly imposed requirements to allow its candidates to qualify for what public funding is left is absolutely the most important thing Green Party supporters should be doing now.

If we don’t accomplish these goals — exceed them, actually — in a timely manner there may be no Green Party campaign at all. (We must exceed the minimums so we have enough of a cushion to forestall a challenge by the Democratic Party. The Williams campaign goal is $50,000 in direct contributions and 4,000 qualifying contributions to the state. The Maine Democratic Party challenged Ralph Nader’s petitions in 2004, and also challenged petitions of an anti-war, pro-single-payer independent candidate for U.S. Senate in 2008.)

There are more than 33,000 registered Greens in Maine. If collectively they can’t meet these fund-raising goals it will be an indication that the Green Party just doesn’t have the muscle to be in the gubernatorial campaign business, which is EXACTLY what the Democrats (and some Republicans) want to happen. Many people believe the legislature, ignoring the hundreds of thousands of Maine voters who approved the Clean Election process several years ago, changed the rules this year SOLELY to prevent the Green Party and independent candidates from securing these funds. In response, Green Party members – and anyone else who supports fair and equitable processes free from special interest money and major party meddling – needs to rally to show the Maine Legislature this isn’t going to happen. It’s true that the culture of the Green Party doesn’t normally include making political contributions a year away from an election, but to remain a viable party it must change that culture.

Beyond the $40,000 minimum, if the Legislature forces additional cuts in the Clean Election funding, the campaign will have to expend additional time and money to replace those funds, time and money that would be better spent on getting the message out and organizing voters.

So please do whatever you can to help this effort. Go to http://LynneWilliams2010.org/contribute to make a contribution, and to find out how you can help with collecting additional contributions on Lynne’s behalf.

Or contact the campaign directly by emailing manager@LynneWilliams2010.org.

And while the minimum $40,000 must come from Maine registered voters, contributions to the campaign are welcome from any individual across the country. If you believe elections should be about free choice of candidates, if you’re tired of the same old same old from the two major parties, if you want campaigns run on issues, not fake polls and fear-mongering sound bites, this is your opportunity to do something about.

But please act now. Don’t put it off. The faster Lynne leaps these financial hurdles, the faster she can devote full time to offering Green Party solutions to the issues facing Maine and our country.

2010 is the year it can happen. Right NOW is the time to get things started.