Barbara Merrill

Barbara Merrill (born 1957 in Frankfurt, Germany) is an American politician from Maine. Elected as a Democrat to the state legislature, she left the party in 2006 to become an independent candidate for Governor of Maine.

Merrill lost to Democratic incumbent John Baldacci who was elected to a second term. She finished in third-place receiving 118,715 votes, or about 21% of all votes cast. [cite web |url=http://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/2006g/gen06gv.html |title=General Election Tabulations -November 7, 2006 - Governor]

Early and childhood years

Merrill was born as Barbara Butler in a U.S. Army hospital in Frankfurt, Germany in 1957. Her father, Charles Butler, was a West Point graduate who served in the Korean War, rose to the rank of Lt. Colonel, and was killed in Vietnam when Merrill was a freshman in high school.

Growing up, she lived in Mississippi, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia and Brazil. Her family moved to Maine in time for her to attend Waterville High School and the University of Maine, where she earned a law degree. After working for the law firm of Verrill Dana, she opened her own practice with her husband, Phil Merrill (with whom she has two children, Nick and Jackie). In her practice, she became a lobbyist, working mainly for non-profit organizations, before the state legislature. In 2004, she ran as a Democrat for the Maine House of Representatives in Appleton. She won the general election with over 60% of the vote.

Politics career

After a year and a half as a Democratic member of the legislature, she authored the book "", in which she advocated a variety of new policies, including eliminating both the corporate income tax and economic development tax breaks, dedicating the sales tax to funding public education, having the state pay for teacher pay, increasing environmental regulation, decreasing all other regulation, establishing a "rainy day fund" to cover budget deficits, and fighting urban sprawl. She says that she wants Maine to be known as "the Free Enterprise State."

On January 3, 2006, Merrill announced that she was changing her voter registration to "unenrolled," the Maine equivalent of Independent, and leaving the Democratic caucus. This temporarily threw the House into turmoil, as the two major parties became tied in number of members, until Rep. Joanne Twomey, who had left the Democrats the previous November, returned to them, ensuring they would retain a majority. A few days later, in a speech delivered in front of the Charles Butler Army Reserve Center in Saco, Maine, Merrill announced that she would be an Independent candidate for Governor.

On May 31, she submitted more than 4,000 valid signatures to the Maine Secretary of State, ensuring that she will receive a place on the ballot. The next day, she submitted proof that she had received 2800 $5 contributions to the Maine Clean Elections Fund, thus qualifying her campaign for partial public funding.

Allegations of Ethical Corruption

On August 13, 2007, Maine's election watchdog panel called on its state legislature to consider increasing disclosure laws as a result of how Barbara Merrill's campaign utilized taxpayer contributions [Glenn Adams, Associated Press Writer, "Ethics panel suggests more Clean Election disclosures", Boston Globe, August 13, 2007 http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2007/08/13/ethics_panel_suggests_more_clean_election_disclosures/] . The ethics commission voted in favor of legislative action based on questions about how money from Maine's Clean Election Act was used in Merrill's 2006 campaign. Merrill paid a company owned and operated solely by her husband, Phillip, more than $200,000 to develop television advertisements. Half the payment was spent on producing ads and purchasing broadcast space, while the rest — $109,000 according to reports — was charged as a fee by her husband for his services. Though the payment was not illegal, her actions set off a controversy in her home state about the ethics of a candidate paying a spouse with taxpayer funded money meant to support an election — in effect directing that money into the candidate’s family income — and whether it should be allowed in the future. [Beth Staples, Citizen Editor, VillageSoup of Waldo County, "Rep. Piotti submits bill barring campaign payments to spouses", August 30, 2007 http://waldo.villagesoup.com/Government/story.cfm?storyID=98958 ] ["Editorial: All in the family", Bangor Daily News, August 17, 2007 http://bangordailynews.com/news/t/viewpoints.aspx?articleid=153227&zoneid=34 ] As the candidate also did not explicitly disclose on documents filed with the state that her husband was paid from Clean Election funds, listing instead the business entity he owned, state citizens have looked upon the action as intentional concealment of dishonest practice. Alison Smith, co-chair of Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, said her group had taken the position that Clean Election campaigns should be allowed to pay for services provided by relatives, noting that many candidates hire family members to put up signs and handle a variety of other chores.

But Smith added that when payments for services to relatives exceed five figures, "it puts up a huge red flag". [ [http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=127209&ac=PHnws Panel urges tougher disclosure laws | Portland Press Herald ] ]

References