# 2015 Maine Question 1

Elections in Maine :
Federal offices
U.S. President
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Rep
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2024
Dem
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U.S. Senate
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1829 sp
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U.S. House of Representatives
1820–1821
1822 sp 2nd
1823
1824–1825
1826–1827
1826 sp 5th
1827 sp 1st
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1860 sp 5th
1862
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1881 sp 2nd
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1897 sp 3rd
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1899 sp 2nd
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1901 sp 4th
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1908 sp 2nd
1908 sp 4th
1910
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1913 sp 3rd
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1940 sp 2nd
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2024 :
State government
Gubernatorial elections
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2022
State Senate elections
2016
2018
2020
2022
State House elections
2016
2018
2020
2022 :
Ballot measures
People's vetoes
2009Question 1
2011Question 1
2018Question 1 (Jun)
2020Question 1
Citizen initiated referendums
2012Question 1
2014Question 1
2015Question 1
2016
Question 1
Question 2
Question 3
Question 4
Question 5
2017
Question 1
Question 2
2018
Question 1 (Nov)
2021
Question 1
2023
Question 1
Constitutional amendments
2021
Question 3
Legislatively referred referendums
2024
Question 5 :
City of Portland
Mayoral elections
2011
2015
2019
2023 :
vte :
Maine Question 1, "An Act To Strengthen the Maine Clean Election Act, Improve Disclosure and Make Other Changes to the Campaign Finance Laws", was a citizen-initiated referendum measure in Maine, which appeared on the November 3, 2015 statewide ballot. As the Maine Legislature did not exercise its ability to pass the bill on its own, it was placed on the ballot and approved by Maine voters.

## Background

The Maine Clean Elections Act was passed as a citizen-initiated referendum titled Question 3 in 1996, making Maine the first state to adopt a public campaign financing law. It established a voluntary public campaign financing program for Maine gubernatorial and legislative elections, allowing candidates who demonstrated a certain level of community support through a limited number of 'seed money' contributions to qualify for public financing of their campaign. Candidates who accepted such financing could not subsequently accept any private contributions to their campaign.
Initially, the Act also provided for publicly financed candidates to receive additional matching funds should privately financed candidates in their race outspend them. In 2011, the United States Supreme Court struck down a similar provision in Arizona as unconstitutional, which led to a US District Court judge doing the same with Maine's provision later that year. Due to those court rulings, the Maine Legislature removed the matching funds provision from the Act.
The group Mainers for Accountable Elections turned in approximately 86,000 signatures to Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap on January 21, 2015. Dunlap verified about 80,000 of them by February 18, 2015. That was about 16,000 more than required, which sent the question to the Legislature for consideration, though they did not do so and the question was sent to the ballot.
Republican State Senator Eric Brakey introduced a competing measure in the Legislature to ask voters to repeal the Act and redirect the intended funds to education costs. His proposal was rejected in committee on May 6, 2015 by a 9-1 vote.
The proposed changes to the Act include increasing the amount of money distributed to candidates, more disclosure requirements such as listing the top three donors that pay for political advertisements in the ad itself, and increased fines for violators.

## Campaign

Mainers for Accountable Elections launched its campaign on July 28, 2015, at a rally where Republican State Sen. Roger Katz spoke in support of the referendum.
Until September 2015, there was no organized opposition to the referendum. On September 23, it was reported a Facebook page was created called "No on Question 1". It was created in part by State Rep. Joel Stetkis (R-Canaan) who appeared on WVOM radio to call the proposal "nothing but a scam" and "an assault on the Maine people who want a citizen legislator to represent them."
Opponents of the Act as a whole include Governor of Maine Paul LePage who has attempted to remove funding for the Act from the state budget, calling it "welfare for politicians", without success as well as the aforementioned Sen. Brakey's effort to seek repeal of the law. The conservative Maine Heritage Policy Center supported court rulings against the Act. LePage has called Question 1 specifically a "scam" and that public campaign financing was like "giving your wife your checkbook".
On October 21, the Maine State Chamber of Commerce announced its opposition to the Question, due to disagreeing with its funding mechanism of eliminating corporate tax breaks. Chamber President Dana Connors stated that Maine's business incentive programs are modest and it would be difficult and harm the state's business climate to eliminate any of them. The opposition was notable it that it was not based on ideological opposition to public financing of campaigns as with other opponents.

### Notable supporters

* Shenna Bellows, Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2014, former head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine
* Chris Johnson, Democratic State Senator
* Roger Katz, Republican State Senator
* Angus King, U.S. Senator and former Governor of Maine
* George Mitchell, former U.S. Senate Majority Leader
* George Smith, former executive director of the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine, TV host
* Groups affiliated with Mainers for Accountable Elections
** American Civil Liberties Union of Maine
** Maine Center for Economic Policy
** Sierra Club Maine
** Environment Maine
* Bangor Daily News
* MaineToday Media newspapers; Portland Press Herald, Kennebec Journal, Morning Sentinel
* Maine Small Business Coalition

### Notable opponents

* John Baldacci, former Governor of Maine, former U.S. Representative
* Kenneth Fredette, Minority Leader of the Maine House of Representatives (R-Newport)
* Paul LePage, Governor of Maine
* Larry Lockman, State Representative (R-Amherst)
* Joel Stetkis, State Representative (R-Canaan)
* Michael Thibodeau, President of the Maine Senate
* Maine State Chamber of Commerce

## Results

Breakdown of voting by county :
| County | Yes | Votes | No | Votes |
| Androscoggin | 49.55% | 9,409 | 50.44% | 9,578 |
| Aroostook | 48.61% | 4,469 | 51.38% | 4,724 |
| Cumberland | 63.88% | 36,290 | 36.11% | 20,514 |
| Franklin | 48.08% | 2,037 | 51.91% | 2,199 |
| Hancock | 57.82% | 6,426 | 42.17% | 4,687 |
| Kennebec | 52.82% | 8,967 | 47.17% | 8,007 |
| Knox | 59.49% | 4,263 | 40.5% | 2,902 |
| Lincoln | 54.64% | 3,549 | 45.35% | 2,946 |
| Oxford | 46.24% | 3,341 | 53.75% | 3,883 |
| Penobscot | 46.9% | 10,202 | 53.09% | 11,550 |
| Piscataquis | 40.1% | 1,116 | 59.89% | 1,667 |
| Sagadahoc | 55.85% | 3,713 | 44.14% | 2,934 |
| Somerset | 41.63% | 2,809 | 58.36% | 3,937 |
| Waldo | 55.24% | 3,868 | 44.75% | 3,134 |
| Washington | 43.24% | 2,032 | 56.75% | 2,667 |
| York | 57.16% | 17,333 | 42.83% | 12,988 |
| Total | 54.94% | 119,912 | 45.06% | 98,343 |