An Act To Reduce the Cost of the Maine Clean Election Act
Maine Legislature, Session 124, LD 0948
Committee: Legal and Veterans Affairs
Sponsors: BEAUDETTE, GILES, TRINW ARD
Amends: 21-A MRSA §1122, 21-A MRSA §1125

Legislative Document 
No. 948 
H.P.651 
House of Representatives, March 10, 2009 
An Act To Reduce the Cost of the Maine Clean Election Act 
Reference to the Committee on Legal and Veterans Affairs suggested and ordered printed. 
Presented by Representative V AN WIE of New Gloucester. 
'/fl~ 1/1. m~~M4{ 
MILLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Cosponsored by Representatives: BEAUDETTE of Biddeford, GILES of Belfast, TRINW ARD 
of Waterville. 
Primct..illll n:cydcd paper 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1. 21-A MRSA §1122, sub-§7, ~A, as amended by PL 2007, c. 443, Pt. B, 
§2, is further amended to read: 
A. Gf From $5 to $10 in the form of a check or a money order payable to the fund, 
signed by the contributor and made in support of a candidate; 
Sec. 2. 21-A MRSA §H25, sub-§3, as amended by PL 2007, c. 571, §11, is 
further amended to read: 
3. 
Qualifying contributions. 
Participating candidates must obtain qualifying 
contributions during the qualifying period as follows: 
A. For a gubernatorial candidate, at least 3,250 verified registered voters of this State 
must support the candidacy by providing a qualifying contribution to that candidate 
and at least $32,500 in qualifying contributions; 
B. For a candidate for the State Senate, at least 150 verified registered voters from 
the candidate's electoral division must support the candidacy by providing a 
qualifying contribution to that candidate and at least $1,500 in qualifying 
contributions; or 
C. 
For a candidate for the State House of Representatives, at least 50 verified 
registered voters from the candidate's electoral division must support the candidacy 
by providing a qualifying contribution to that candidate and at least $500 in 
qualifying contributions. 
A payment, gift or anything of value may not be given in exchange for a qualifying 
contribution. 
A candidate may pay the fee for a money order that is a qualifying 
contribution in the amount ef from $5 to $10 as long as the donor making the qualifying 
contribution pays the $5 to $10 amount reflected on the money order. Any money order 
fees paid by a participating candidate must be paid for with seed money and reported in 
accordance with commission rules. A money order must be signed by the contributor to 
be a valid qualifying contribution. The commission may establish by routine technical 
rule, adopted in accordance with Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A, a procedure for a 
qualifying contribution to be made by a credit or debit transaction and by electronic funds 
transfer over the Internet. Records containing information provided by individuals who 
have made qualifying contributions over the Internet are confidential, except for the name 
of the individual making the contribution, the date of the contribution, the individual's 
residential address and the name and office sought of the candidate in whose support the 
contribution was made. 
It is a violation of this chapter for a participating candidate or an agent of the participating 
candidate to misrepresent the purpose of soliciting qualifying contributions and obtaining 
the contributor's signed acknowledgement. 
Sec. 3. 21-A MRSA §H25, sub-§7-A, as amended by PL 2007, c. 443, Pt. B, §6, 
is further amended to read: 
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7-A. Deposit into account. The candidate or committee authorized pursuant to 
section lOB-A, subsection 1 shall deposit all revenues from the fund, additional funds 
raised under subsection 9-A and all seed money contributions in a campaign account with 
a bank or other financial institution. The campaign funds must be segregated from, and 
may not be commingled with, any other funds. 
Sec. 4. 21-A MRSA §1125, sub-§8, ~C, as amended by PL 2003, c. 688, Pt. A, 
§21, is further amended to read: 
C. For contested legislative general elections, the amount of revenues distributed is 
the average amount of campaign expenditures made by each candidate during all 
contested general election races for the immediately preceding 2 general elections, as 
reported in the initial filing period subsequent to the general election, less $2,750 for 
the respective offices office of State Senate and less $1,500 for the office of State 
House of Representatives. 
Sec. 5. 21-A MRSA §1125, sub-§9-A is enacted to read: 
9-A. Additional fund-raising. A participating candidate may raise additional funds 
from September 1st to October 15th of the election year. A donation raised under this 
subsection may be no more than $50 and the total amount raised under this subsection 
may be no more than $2,000 for a candidate for the State Senate or $1,000 for a candidate 
for the State House of Representatives. A donation under this subsection may only be 
made by a registered voter within the electoral division for the office a candidate is 
seeking and whose voter registration has been verified by the municipal registrar. Funds 
raised under this subsection must be deposited into the campaign account under 
subsection 7-A and reported to the commission pursuant to subsection 12. Funds raised 
under this subsection must be used to offset matching funds under subsection 9 with the 
remainder to be remitted to the commission. 
SUMMARY 
This bill amends the Maine Clean Election Act by: 
1. Changing the amount allowed for a qualifying contribution from $5 to from $5 to 
$10; 
2. Requiring a nurnmum amount of qualifying contributions of $32,500 for a 
candidate for Governor, $1,500 for a candidate for State Senate and $500 for a candidate 
for State House of Representatives; and 
3. Allowing a participating candidate to raise between September 1 st and October 
15th of the election year $2,000 for a candidate for State Senate and $1,000 for a 
candidate for State House of Representatives in amounts up to $50 per donor who are 
registered voters of the candidate's district.