ME-Gov: Awful news for candidates relying on Maine’s public funding: A drafting error in the state budget is set to prevent them from receiving supplemental funds after July 1. Public financing in Maine is unusual from other states in that not only can candidates qualify for a sizable round of initial funding for each of the primary and general election periods by raising a certain number of small-dollar donations, they can gain access to several supplement rounds of a smaller amount of public funds for each additional batch of small donations they raise.
Consequently, grass-roots candidates can attain some serious financial firepower simply through public financing, but this budgetary error will prevent candidates from unlocking any of those supplemental funds just weeks after the June 12 primary concludes. Furthermore, Lawmakers have shown little intention of calling a special session to fix the error, and this debacle could hurt the chances of three candidates relying on public funds: Democratic activist Betsy Sweet, Republican state Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason, and independent state Treasurer Terry Hayes.
If Sweet or Mason wins their party's nomination, they'd only have access to the $400,000 in public funds they got for the primary, $600,000 for winning the primary, and whatever they could raise in small donations of $5 to $100 dollars. Hayes will be stuck with the $200,000 she got for the primary period, $600,000 for already qualifying for the general election ballot, and any small donations.
Meanwhile, businessman Adam Cote isn't relying on public funds in the Democratic primary, and his latest ad takes aim at state Attorney General Janet Mills in what's the first negative TV ad of the contest. The first two-thirds of the ad is a cherry segment that touts Cote's work on clean energy and environmentalism, but Cote politely segues into saying, "I just think Janet Mills is wrong to join [GOP] Gov. [Paul] LePage in refusing to strengthen water protections," which concerns the state's fight against federal water quality standards supported by the Penobscot Nation and Passamaquoddy Tribe.
However, where the ad raises a real ruckus is how Cote lists several prominent environmental groups like the Sierra Club under a graphic of those who "Disagree with Janet Mills," while he claims they "disagree with Janet, too." However, listing them in this fashion implies they've endorsed Cote rather than just opposed Mills and LePage on this particular issue. Consequently, both the Natural Resources Council of Maine and Maine Conservation Voters called on Cote to remove their names from the ad, to which Cote's campaign reportedly agreed and said it would replace the ad with a modified version.