Maine Candidate for Governor Forgoes Campaign Public Financing

Lynne Williams, a candidate for Governor of Maine, has announced that she will not tap into public funding for her campaign and will "return to sender" all of the $5 “qualifying contribution” checks and credit card donations her campaign is holding.

“We’ve been agonizing over this for several weeks,” Williams said, “and while we solidly support the concept of public funding for gubernatorial elections, it appears the position of the Maine Legislature is to dilute the fund and also make it harder for Clean Election candidates to qualify for what will be left."

Williams, who is running as a Maine Green Independent Party candidate, has argued that the state's clean election laws make it harder for third party candidates to qualify for public funding since their supporters must first raise $40,000 in private donations in increments of $100 or less. The private contribution limit for non-Clean Election candidates ranges from $500 to $750 per person.

“Basically, the Legislature said that in order to avoid the influence of private money, we have to raise private money. It makes no sense,” Williams said.