Politics & Other Mistakes: Making things worse

6 mins read
Al Diamon
Al Diamon

Here’s the annoying question I ask supporters of publicly funded political campaigns and term limits for legislators:

Can you show me any way in which the current Legislature is better than the ones we had before those alleged reforms were instituted?

Here are some actual answers I’ve received.

“I wasn’t really around back then.”

“That’s not the point.”

“Ummm … I’m not sure.”

“Officer, this man is bothering me.”

Here are some answers I haven’t received.

• The Legislature is less partisan. (That’s probably because it’s not.)

• The Legislature is less beholden to special interests. (Again, because it’s not.)

• Today’s senators and representatives are more knowledgeable about the issues. (Anyone who believes that is delusional.)

• I feel better knowing these laws are in place, even if they don’t make a lick of difference. (That’s probably the real reason a majority of Mainers support the Clean Election Act and the term limit law. Those statutes give them the warm fuzzies.)

Legislative term limits came into being in 1993, thanks to a referendum financed by Betty Noyce, a wealthy philanthropist who admitted she cared little for politics. In spite of her lack of interest, Noyce was concerned that certain legislators, notably then-House Speaker John Martin, had garnered too much power and should be removed from office. Twenty-two years later, Martin is still around. What’s gone is the roughly 25 percent of the Legislature that had sufficient experience to stand up to him and get things done in a sensible fashion. What’s left are novices, clunkheads and ideological extremists.

Nice work, Betty.

The Clean Election law arrived in 1996, again thanks to a citizen initiative. Not only was it supposed to drive the “dirty” money out of campaigns, but also to increase diversity in the Legislature. At that time, the House and Senate were controlled by old, white guys, much like the not-quite-as-old-but-just-as-white guys who control both chambers today. Women were a distinct minority before public funding began, and remain one afterwards. Young people and minorities are as common in Augusta today as they were before ’96, which is to say not very. In short, millions of taxpayer dollars were spent to change things hardly at all.

And that evil special-interest money is now the dominant force in all elections.

In a sensible universe, both these measures would be seen as failures and repealed. But this isn’t a sensible universe. This is Maine, where we’re currently giving away $16 million in tax incentives to a corporate entity that promised to invest to save a paper mill, but never did. The law that allows that company to get away with what otherwise might be deemed a criminal conspiracy to commit fraud was approved by that term-limited, clean electioned Legislature the reformers have given us.

Speaking of those starry-eyed dreamers, they aren’t completely unaware that their quest to improve the body politic hasn’t worked out as intended. The do-gooders aim to correct the problem of increasing spending on legislative campaigns through a referendum on next year’s ballot that will allow candidates to spend even more. And you’ll get to pay for it.

Meanwhile, term limits advocates are opposing all bills to make changes in that system. A proposal to repeal the whole mess is dead on arrival, while measures to increase the number of terms legislators could serve have less chance of survival than horny salamanders trying to cross I-95. The limits law isn’t even two decades old, supporters say, so it needs more time to work. Sort of like that tax break for the paper mill.

Which is not to say the reformers are opposed to all changes in the status quo. They believe what’s needed to correct the minor deficiencies in their earlier plans is the latest miracle drug for electoral malaise.

Ranked-choice voting offers the opportunity to rate the candidates from best to worst, and then vote for as many as you like. If nobody gets a majority, the one with the lowest total is eliminated and his or her votes dispersed to the second choice. In theory, this continues until somebody gets over 50 percent. In reality, ballots that aren’t marked for at least one of the top two finishers are disregarded, meaning the winner need not achieve a true majority.

There’ll likely be a referendum next year on instituting this system. If it’s successful, it’ll make a difference in the House and Senate. Instead of a Legislature full of taxpayer-funded incompetents, we’ll have one filled with taxpayer-funded incompetents who were everybody’s third choice.

Attempts to reform me may be emailed to aldiamon@herniahill.net.

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