Dear Editor:

A “People’s Pledge” seems appropriate in a state with clean elections. Until recently, I was unaware there was a first for stopping attack ads and the use of large outside funds. Our New England cousin, Massachusetts, was the initiator, and New Hampshire is now waiting for the second acceptance by Sen. Scott Brown. A historic use of the People’s Pledge is also taking place in Rhode Island’s Democratic primary.

What was most impressive was the penalty for using outside sources for an attack ad. The violator pays a penalty of 50 percent of the advertisement cost to the competitor’s choice of charity. Outside dark money could be used for good purposes, a win on all sides. The winner is both the candidate and “the people.” Citizens are spared ugly and mean-spirited attack ads and actually get more information about issues that are important to them. The election results then reflect the majority’s view of what is important to address for the winning candidate. Money is not wasted on meaningless attacks often containing large distortions of facts.

Tyler Creighton of Common Cause published “A Plea for a Pledge” that reflected the results of the 2012 election. The pledge curbed outside money, limited secret money, reduced big money and clearly decreased negative advertising. It gave perspective to the impact of the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision, reporting greater than 400 percent increase in outside group spending. That is a lot of dark money working to hide the light of accurate and relevant information.

Most important, the People’s Pledge increased the influence of small donor donations relative to the large dollar donations. That means there was less inequality represented in the Massachusetts election. In fact outside groups did not air television advertisements in Massachusetts. This spared all citizens as well as children from listening to negative attacks. The People’s Pledge is right for Maine. It insures equality in voting rights and keeps democracy vibrant.

Jarryl Larson
Edgecomb