Fanfare for the Common Sense Man
By Bill Nemitz
He's only one among five. Unlike his counterparts on the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices, he has no party label next to his name. But Michael Friedman, bless him, brought something to his debut last week that we don't often see in the high-stakes world of electoral politics.
"I'd have to say it was common sense," Friedman said when asked why he broke ranks with the two Democrats and two Republicans in his first vote as the commission's Lone Independent. |
"I'd have to say it was common sense," Friedman said when asked why he broke ranks with the two Democrats and two Republicans in his first vote as the commission's Lone Independent.
The issue was, depending on your perspective, either immensely complicated or painfully simple: Do recent TV ads respectively promoting Gov. John Baldacci and his Republican challenger, Chandler Woodcock, focus only on "issues"? Or do they advocate for the candidates themselves?
It's an important distinction. If the pro-Woodcock ads by the Republican Governors Association or the pro-Baldacci ads by Maine's Democratic State Committee were deemed "express advocacy," the money spent on them could trigger matching Clean Election funds for publicly funded Green Independent candidate Pat LaMarche and independent Barbara Merrill.
(A sole finding that the Democratic ad expressly advocated for Baldacci also could have funneled matching funds into Woodcock's publicly funded campaign coffers.)
The commission began by reviewing the ads. Then they listened to the lawyers argue and argue and argue. Naturally, the Democratic lawyers claimed the GOP's pro-Woodcock ads crossed the line into "express advocacy," but their pro-Baldacci ads didn't.
And the Republican lawyers said the GOP ads were just fine, but the Democrats' ads weren't.
Finally, the commission's two Democrats and two Republicans all bemoaned the vague wording of Maine's Clean Elections statute, stamped everything on the table an "issue ad" and called it a day.
Not so with Friedman, a Bangor lawyer tapped last summer as the commission's man in the middle.
Call him crazy, but Friedman (like the average TV viewer) thinks an ad showing Woodcock out there stumping while the words "Woodcock" and "Governor" appear simultaneously on the screen is in no way an "issue ad." It's a direct plug for Chandler Woodcock.
Likewise, an ad showing a Portsmouth Naval Shipyard worker singing the praises of Baldacci over the words "John Baldacci, the jobs governor" is not a Democratic thumb-sucker. It's a blatant attempt to get Baldacci re-elected.
"I just want to make certain that Clean Election candidates have a level playing field," said Friedman. "And I didn't think they did with these ads."
Back when he was first nominated last summer, Friedman came across a blog whose hyper-political author had researched Friedman's political donations over the years. They totaled a whopping $300 — with $200 going to Democrats and $100 to Republicans.
The prediction, Friedman recalled with a chuckle, was "that I'll probably vote Democratic two-thirds of the time."
Don't count on it. With one vote, the Lone Independent made it clear that it's not his politics he brings to this perennially partisan minefield.
It's just common sense.
