Letter to the editor

Urge all candidates to come ‘clean’

Tue, 04/23/2019 - 1:30pm

Dear Editor:

When Mike Tomko and Russ Hoffman ran for the Boothbay Harbor board of selectmen in 2016, they were unopposed. When Wendy Wolf ran last year, she was unopposed. Serving as a selectman is a time-consuming position with heavy responsibility, and the town often has had a hard time rustling up volunteers to fill its openings. In fact, in 2013, no one took out papers to run, and Hoffman won with write-in votes.

Times have changed. Four candidates are vying for two seats, and the campaigning is fierce. Early newspaper ads, professionally crafted PR messages, urgent-sounding robo-calls, a blossoming of campaign signs on every street, door-to-door electioneering, a flurry of letters to the editor, fundraising parties—one might believe that someone with an axe to grind has decided that winning this election is worth a large financial investment.  

Sadly, we have no way of knowing. If we were a town the size of Brunswick, for example, we would. Municipal candidates in Maine towns with populations greater than 15,000 are required to follow strict ethics requirements and filings, which give transparency to their campaigns. All expenditures—even those funded by the candidates themselves, as well as in-kind contributions—must be publicly reported by timely deadlines. Voters know how much money the candidates raise and from whom, and they can better judge candidates’ independence. 

A lack of transparency damages voters’ trust in our local elections. Boothbay’s most recent elections were accompanied by rumors of large expenditures by a local developer. The same is happening here.

Nothing stops candidates from voluntarily and publicly disclosing their campaigns’ finances. In Boothbay Harbor, in the midst of making difficult decisions about the future, such transparency would give voters peace of mind to know there’s no hidden agenda or powerful special interest driving any of its candidates.

To that end, voters should urge all four candidates to publicly list their cash and in-kind contributions and the source of each. This information could be published in the Boothbay Register’s May 2nd issue and on the candidates’ Facebook campaign pages. Let the sunshine in!

 Barbara Burt

Boothbay Harbor