Secretary of State Shenna Bellows announced Friday the final question wording for a citizens’ initiative that is set to go before Maine voters this November.
Validated by Secretary Bellows in February, the law proposed by the initiative aims to change campaign finance law in the state by limiting the value of donations made to qualifying political action committees (PACs).
The final question wording that will appear on the ballot this November is:
“Do you want to set a $5,000 limit for giving to political action committees that spend money independently to support or defeat candidates for office?”
Maine state law currently defines independent expenditures as any communication expense — such as for advertisements or phone banks — that clearly advocates for or against a particular candidate but is “not made in cooperation, consultation or concert with, or at the request or suggestion of, a candidate, a candidate’s authorized political committee or an agent of either.”
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) recognizes several types of PACs — each of which are subjected to a unique set of rules — including two categories particularly relevant to this citizens’ initiative: traditional PACs and Super PACs.
While traditional PACs can make contributions to political candidates in addition to making independent expenditures, they are already limited to receiving no more than $5,000 a year from any single donor.
Super PACs — more formally known as independent expenditure-only PACs — cannot donate directly to candidates but are eligible to receive unlimited contributions from their donors.
Under the proposed legislation, however, contributions made by both individuals and businesses to PACs “for the purpose of making independent expenditures” would be limited to a total of $5,000 per calendar year as well.
If approved, this would present a challenge to the current structure of PAC limitations, as well as to existing legal precedent.
The final question wording is nearly identical to that which was originally proposed for the November ballot, which read:
“Do you want to set a $5,000 limit for giving to groups that spend money independently to support or defeat candidates for office?”
Following the public comment period, the language referring to Super PACs as “groups” was swapped out for the phrase “political action committees.”
According to a press release from the Secretary’s office, eleven pieces of public comment were received during the thirty-day period between April 30 and May 30.
“These comments, from individuals and organizations throughout the state, were taken into consideration to draft the final language of each ballot question,” the Secretary wrote.
Click Here to Read Sec. Bellows’ Full Press Release
Super PACs first came about in 2010 in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. FEC in which the Justices decided that placing limitations on “independent political spending” by both individuals and corporations violated the First Amendment, arguing that these expenditures did not present a sufficient enough threat of corruption warrant government intervention.
With the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ subsequent decision in the case of SpeechNow v. FEC, it was determined that placing any limitations on donations to PACs making only independent expenditures was unconstitutional under the First Amendment, thus paving the way for the creation of Super PACs.
[RELATED: Citizens Initiative Aiming to Limit PAC Spending Validated by Maine Secretary of State]
The petition for this citizens initiative was first circulated on October 27, 2023, and by January 23, 2024, 11,313 petition forms with 84,025 signatures were submitted to the Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions (CEC), of which 76,081 were determined to be valid.
The effort to advance this proposal was spearheaded by Harvard Law Professor and political activist Lawrence Lessig.
Equal Citizens — the non-profit founded by Lessig — played an active role in helping to raise funds in support of gathering the signatures needed to put this issue in front of Mainers.
Both Equal Citizens and Maine Citizens to End Super PACs — the ballot question committee (BQC) responsible for the petition — have indicated that they anticipate this law, if approved, will spark legal challenges that will ultimately bring the issue before the Supreme Court.
Equal Citizens has been involved in similar efforts before, introducing bills in an attempt to get the courts to overturn the D.C. Circuit’s SpeechNow ruling in Alaska in 2018 and again in Massachusetts in 2022.
Every SINGLE THING this fugly Bwllows woman does is DERANGED, anti-American, Marxist, and designed to ruin the State of Maine and the U.S. as a whole.