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Assistant Senate Minority Leader Justin Alfond, a Portland Democrat, told Senate Republicans that the failure to provide some way for a Clean Election candidate in a targeted race to receive additional money was completely contradictory to the law’s goal of reducing the influence of special interests in elections.
“Are we excited to bring more money into politics?” Alfond asked. “The idea of bringing more money into politics–does that excite us? Is that going to help the system? Is that, all of sudden, going to give us selling points in talking with voters when we go back to knock on their doors? You know, when I went to Augusta this session what I did was to double the amount of money that can come to me through private contributions. I just don’t see the excitement in that. I don’t see the logic in that.”
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