MAINE CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION

Candidate’s Right to Exercise Political Speech Violated
MCLU Claims Statute is Overbroad and Unfair

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Contact: Shenna Bellows, (207)774-5444
               David A. Lourie, (207)799-4922

PORTLAND—A 2006 candidate for Maine House of Representatives was harmed by an unconstitutional law that restricts political speech, according to a motion advancing the complaint in the Cumberland County Superior Court filed today by Maine Civil Liberties Union Foundation cooperating attorney David A. Lourie.  Michael Mowles of Cape Elizabeth became the subject of harmful scrutiny during his bid for the Republican primary nomination after the State Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices (Commission) publicly criticized his campaign literature. 

“Our elections system is based upon a free marketplace of ideas,” said David A. Lourie, MCLU volunteer attorney for the plaintiff, “The decision about whether a politicians’ speech is foolish, inappropriate, or misleading rests with the voters, not the government.”

Mowles’s 2004 candidacy for Maine House of Representatives was endorsed by U.S. Senators Snowe and Collins.  In his 2006 run for the same office, he distributed leaflets that included quotations from the previous election’s Senatorial endorsements, each with the attribution “October 2004” printed after it.  His opponent in the 2006 Republican primary, Jennifer Duddy, filed a complaint with the Commission alleging that Mowles circulated a misleading leaflet.

The Commission held a hearing of which Mowles was notified an hour and a half prior and was unable to attend.  At the hearing, the Commission determined that by reprinting the earlier endorsements he was violating the statute that prohibits distributing “unauthorized” campaign materials.  The decision of the Commission was widely reported in local papers, and Mowles lost to Duddy in the primary.

“The government doesn’t have the right to control political speech,” said Shenna Bellows, Executive Director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, “Mr. Mowles was making use of comments already in the public sphere.  It’s up to the people, not his opponent and not the government, to decide whether or not that’s appropriate.” 

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