MPBP: John Martin’s “Clean” Elections “Dirty” Secret?

Maine People Before Politics posted this story on Tuesday, Oct 16. See it here.

State Legislator has spent more than $8,500 in so-called “Clean” taxpayer election funds at bankrupt convenience store he co-owns

Taxpayer funding of elections has become a flashpoint in Maine.  Multiple lawmakers have been tripped up by the rules regarding election funding and the use of tax money to pay for campaigns under “clean” elections laws.

Now a new analysis of taxpayer-funded campaigns and expenditures has turned up a new series of questionable expenses – all from John Martin, one of the most famous and longest serving Democratic politicians in Maine.

In March of 2012, the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting released a report revealing that Representative John Martin D-Eagle Lake was co-owner of the Bald Eagle convenience store in his hometown of Eagle Lake.

Lost upon many at the time, and curiously unreported by the Maine media or special interest groups such as Maine Citizens for Clean Elections in their numerous reports is the fact that over the past decade, Martin’s election campaigns, each funded with Maine “Clean” Elections taxpayer dollars, have given more than $8,500 to Martin’s own business.

Page 34 of the MCEA Candidate handbook states that a MCEA campaign:

“may not pay MCEA funds to a member of the candidate’s immediate family or household, or to a business entity in which the candidate, or an immediate family or household member holds a significant proprietary or financial interest.”

Yet, the following reports, pulled from the Maine State Ethics Commission website clearly show Martin’s “Clean” elections campaigns spending more than $8,500 over the past decade, with the most recent expenditure being May 25, 2012 – two months after Martin’s co-ownership of the business became broadly known by the public.

Even more curious is the large, flat sums that were occasionally, but often in tight chronological groupings, spent by Martin’s campaign:

Source Documents

• 2002 6 Day Pre-General Expenditure Report
• 2002 42 Day Post General Expenditure Report
• 2004 42 Day Post Primary Expenditure Report
• 2004 6 Day Pre-General Expenditure Report
• 2004 42 Day Post-General Expenditure Report
• 2006 6 Day Pre-Primary Expenditure Report
• 2006 42 Day Post-Primary Expenditure Report
• 2006 6 Day Pre-General Expenditure Report
• 2006 42 Day Post-General Expenditure Report
• 2010 42 Day Post-Primary Expenditure Report
• 2010 11 Day Pre-General Expenditure Report
• 2010 42 Day Post-General Expenditure Report
• 2012 11 Day Pre-Primary Expenditure Report

MPBP also notes that:

• Martin’s campaign expenditures to Bald Eagle for both the 2002 and 2004 election cycles don’t include an Expenditure Code to tell taxpayers what the $1,800 in 2002 and $2375 in 2004 was supposedly spent on.
• Martin’s 2006 reports would have taxpayers believe his campaign spent more than $3,700 at Bald Eagle for fuel & travel expenses, almost as much as they spent in 2002/2004 combined.

“Something about these reports smells fishy,” said Jason Savage, executive director of MPBP. “From the large flat sums and lack of disclosure to the sudden changes from not coding expenditures, to coding for fuel and travel and then changes to coding for food, rent and meetings, this is not the type of information that would give the public confidence.”

Savage also challenged so-called “clean” elections supporters and groups around the state, “While you’re attacking reforms that were brought about because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and criticizing private people and businesses for what they do with their own money, who is minding the shop and keeping an eye on what “clean” elections candidates are doing with our money?”

Bouncing between the House and Senate, John Martin has held power in one way or another in Augusta since the 1970s.  He was the longest serving Democratic Speaker of the House in Maine history. In the early 1990s he was forced to resign as Maine’s House Speaker.  Martin’s “top aide” was caught stuffing ballot boxes in election recounts.  Despite that history, Democrats chose him to be a power broker as a lead Democrat on Maine’s Appropriations Committee where he makes decisions regarding taxpayer dollars.