The Races - Enough Already

Patrick McGowan is now running for governor as a Democrat. However the situation of the Clean Election Funding has become dire:

Primary candidates are entitled to $400,000 dollars each after privately raising $40,000 in seed money. They're are also entitled to up to $200,000 in matching money to offset spending by privately-funded candidates. When a Republican Clean Election candidate is rolled into the mix, the costs of the [gubernatorial] primaries could easily exceed $2.5 million dollars.

Legislative candidates are also expected to subtract about $3 million from the $10 million fund, but that figure could go higher. What's left would go to publicly-funded [gubernatorial] candidates remaining in the race.

McGowan says the people of Maine voted for publicly-financed campaigns and the Legislature should provide the money that's needed. "And that's something that the people voted overwhelmingly for, and I think that the money will be there," he says. "I think that the commitment is there from the Legislature and the executive branch to fund a system that is in fact a model for most of the country."

"As far as not having enough money, that's a policy decision that's been made by the Legislature," says Former Economic and Community Development Commissioner John Richardson, who is also running as a Democrat for governor under the Clean Election Act. He says lawmakers need to pay up.

"I was in the Legislature and one of the leaders in the Legislature for a time, and I recall that we made sure that we held that trust fund harmless, and we made sure there was enough in there, so that all of the candidates that were under consideration could run," he says. "That's, I think, the responsibility of this Legislature, to make sure that these candidates, including myself, have enough money to run."

Excerpt over. Note to A.J.Higgens: learn how to spell gubernatorial.

So, the funds might not be enough for all the candidates. And the candidates using it say the legislature should pay up. Is it me or does anyone really expect the legislatures in Augusta to open their wallets and make a donation? We all know they will just raise taxes.

Then saying it is a model system for the rest of the country to follow is pure stupidity. Look at the results of the leaders we have elected. Also, look at the stupid people willing to run: they think their campaigns are more important than special needs funds during a budget crisis.

At this point I know we need to get rid of the stupid people in Augusta. Yes, keep the corrupt ones. Get rid of the stupid ones. At least the corrupt ones have a direction to take Maine, the stupid ones are just running us into the ground. Once we get rid of the stupid ones, lets get rid of the corrupt ones. As for governor, if Bruce Poliquin wins we'll have a smart, honest leader. Obviously a couple (read excerpt) of the Democratic candidates are either corrupt, stupid, or both.

Do I sound a little harsh here? Yes, I do. Good. They deserve my scorn. I'm 18 years old and look at the state I've been given. I'd rather grow up in a slum in the Bronx instead of Maine. I'd have a better chance of having an interesting life looking for opportunity. Here in Maine all we get are promises of opportunity and prosperity and we never get it. Well, I've had enough. There is only one candidate I trust, and even then that isn't enough. We need a complete overhaul of the entire political body in Augusta.

Replace them all. At this point anyone can call me an idealistic, young, out-of-touch-with-reality nutcase and I won't care. I do not want my money paying for candidates I do not approve of. I do not want candidates receiving money from the state budget when we have special needs kid's programs and elderly assistance being canceled. All of this while a 90 million dollar laptop program continues to exist without question. 90 million dollars for a program not yet proven to increase student intelligence and yet we are cutting the funding for those in need. Being a student who used the laptops in question: I learned nothing new. We didn't do programming, we just wrote essays on the laptop instead of by hand. Nothing new except the methods to distract ourselves in class.

Just saying. Now put down the rutabaga.

Note: the world should agree on how to spell "canceled" (cancelled).

As for those who don't believe the 90 million dollar cost:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25782209/

Update: I forgot to include the link to the first section:

http://www.mpbn.net/News/MaineNews/tabid/181/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3475/ItemId/10458/Default.aspx