20 Mar 2018 Help candidates qualify for funding through the Maine Clean Election Act
As you may know, many Democrats are running as Clean Elections candidates so they don’t need to accept money from wealthy donors or special interests — but they do need our help.
Qualifying candidates receive funding that allows them to spend their time reaching out to constituents rather than raising money. In order to qualify for public funds under the Maine Clean Election Act, a candidate must demonstrate a threshold amount of community support by collecting a minimum number of $5 contributions. For legislative candidates, the contributions must be made by registered voters in the candidate’s district, and for candidates for governor the contributions must be made by individuals registered to vote in Maine.
Make your contribution online. The system will tell you which candidates in your area are accepting qualifying contributions and you choose the candidate(s) to contribute $5 to and pay online.
Deadlines for Certification
Candidates for the Legislature must submit their qualifying contributions and the accompanying receipt & acknowledgement forms to the Commission by 5:00 PM on April 20. The deadline for Gubernatorial candidates is 5:00 PM on April 2.
Deadlines for Supplemental Fund Qualification
Gubernatorial Candidates in a primary must qualify by May 22 for primary supplemental funding.
Legislative candidates have an informal deadline of June 22 to submit qualifying contributions for general election supplemental funding. This is due to an issue with legislation that limits spending of MCEA funds after June 30.
NOTE: If you have already made contributions prior to the April deadline, additional contributions will not help your specific candidates with recording additional qualifying contributions, but they will help fund the Clean Election Fund account.
Alden F Cheney
Posted at 18:10h, 27 MayWhen you combine “funding” with a democratic process, you lose me. Call me naive.
Christopher Johnson
Posted at 11:42h, 01 JuneThe Maine Clean Elections Act provides a means for Legislative and Gubernatorial campaigns to qualify for funding through the Maine Clean Elections Fund. To qualify for initial and additional funding within the limit, a candidate must have certain number registered voters within their district make $5 contributions to the Clean Election Fund in support of the candidate. Candidates who fund their campaigns this way are not beholding to any corporate, PAC, or special interest contributions, and are not allowed to accept any such contributions. That’s important to democratic process because it avoids conflict with a candidate’s commitment to the voters that elected them.