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Michael Cianchette is a Navy reservist who served in Afghanistan. He is in-house counsel to a number of businesses in southern Maine and was a chief counsel to former Gov. Paul LePage.
No, no, no, no. Yes, yes, yes, yes.
That’s how I’m planning to vote on the November ballot questions.
Question 1 is part of Central Maine Power and Versant’s chess match against Pine Tree Power. It sounds pretty good. If a state-created entity is going to borrow a billion dollars, voters should get to weigh in.
But it is an example of the problem with the referendum process.
We are probably decades away from that law being applicable to anything other than the would-be quasi-governmental electric company that the Pine Tree Power referendum would create. Yet CMP and Versant had enough resources to get signature gatherers on the street to put a nice sounding question on the ballot.
We need to stop letting interest groups — of all stripes — game our electoral system. That’s why I’m a “no.”
The next item, Question 2, sounds good as well. It would attempt to prohibit foreign governments from participating in any public debates occurring at the ballot box. What’s wrong with that?
We live in a pretty complex world. Ignore all the utility-related issues for a minute. The law, if passed, would prevent any entity in which a foreign government has an investment of at least 5 percent from spending money in any Maine election.
What if Airbus opened a facility in Brunswick, Bangor, or Limestone and they wanted to chime in on some statewide tax referendum question that substantially impacted them? Well, Germany and France each own more than 5 percent of the company, so they are banned. Same with Volkswagen, since the German state of Lower Saxony owns 11 percent of the automaker.
More disclosure from foreign governments may be worthwhile, but an outright ban tells would-be investors to come in, spend your money, sit down, and shut up. Not exactly hospitable.
Question 3 — the Pine Tree Power takeover — is the big tamale. I’m still with Gov. Janet Mills. Having a bunch more taxpayer-funded political campaigns is not a recipe for prudent management of our electricity infrastructure.
The final referendum question seems to be the quietest. Question 4 would create a so-called “right to repair.” The substance of the bill deals with access to information on computers installed in vehicles.
Again, the concept isn’t a bad one. But it also forces some businesses to sell proprietary products to other businesses. There are other ways to address the issue, rather than having the government threaten to penalize businesses for not selling things to competitors.
Question 5 is the most boring. It is basically a cleanup of some timelines in the Maine Constitution. I have a habit of defaulting to “no” on most ballot questions, but this one should be a layup for “yes.”
Questions 7 and 8 are cleanup, as well. Question 7 removes part of the Constitution that requires people who circulate referendum petitions be Maine residents. Under the federal constitution, that isn’t allowed.
I don’t think we should keep illegal provisions — even if unenforceable — in our state constitution without a really good reason. So, I’ll vote yes. But the Legislature should follow-up in January with real reforms to our trainwreck of a referendum process.
Question 8 is the same. Our constitution has a prohibition on letting people “under guardianship for mental illness” vote. Federal courts have said that is far too broad under the U.S. Constitution. So we should remove it.
While there are adults who do lack the capacity to vote, that means denying them a right. And whenever we are taking away people’s constitutional rights — like firearms, speech, or voting — we must tread carefully. To the extent existing law is insufficient on guardianship, the Legislature should address it in statute.
FInally, there is Question 6. I’m a “yes.” But unpacking that answer is not easy; it deserves more than a passing thought. The story includes a constitutional committee, the Wabanaki, Bowdoin College, and Angus King. Stay tuned.
The issues before Maine voters on the November ballot are complicated. I land as a “no” on the referendum questions, “yes” on the constitutional ones. That’s as simple as I can make it.
