Rep. Clinton Collamore Sr. of Waldoboro, a newly elected Democrat, hasn’t attended legislative proceedings since Jan. 17, a week before news broke of his indictment on state election fraud charges. He was stripped of his committee assignments two weeks ago.
Collamore is a state representative who is providing no representation. He is a legislator in name only – enough, apparently, for him to continue to draw a legislative salary, even if he’s not serving his constituents.
To state the obvious, Collamore should resign immediately.
He has every right to fight the charges against him, but it’s clear he can’t be a state representative while doing so.
Collamore, a 62-year-old lobsterman and former machinist and union official at Bath Iron Works, won the House District 45 seat in November in a tight race over a Republican challenger.
Along with about 200 other legislators, Collamore was a Clean Election candidate, meaning he was provided with public funds for campaigning after collecting enough small-dollar donations from voters in his district.
However, the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics, which enforces campaign finance laws, believes Collamore forged signatures from more than 30 contributors. He has been charged with 20 counts of aggravated forgery, 11 counts of unsworn falsification, and one count of violating the Maine Clean Election Act. He is set to be arraigned Thursday in Lincoln County Superior Court.
One other 2022 candidate, a Republican who dropped out before the election, has also been indicted on forgery charges related to the Clean Election Act.
In the time since Collamore’s indictment became public in January, he has been incommunicado. He hasn’t been involved in any of business going on at the State House or in the committee rooms; he was stripped of his committee assignments by House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, also a Democrat, who has also called on him to resign.
Collamore has not responded to multiple opportunities to address the allegations against him and inform his constituents of how he plans to serve them while he deals with the charges. His attorney also did not respond.
Still, Collamore is collecting his legislative salary, constituent service allowance and travel-related reimbursements – $6,860 so far, according to Randy Billings of the Press Herald.
Meanwhile, he is doing exactly none of the work he was elected to do.
Collamore should resign immediately. His constituents deserve more than an absent legislator.
If only it were as easy as riding a bike
A new bill would have Efficiency Maine, the quasi-state body tasked with bringing Maine around to clean energy in all its forms, pay out rebates for electric bikes.
The proposal, put forward by Brunswick Sen. Mattie Daughtry, is being cheered on by environmentalists, bike shop owners and cycling Mainers. One of them, testifying in support of the bill, suggested that with a rebated e-bike he could finally catch up with his (e-bike riding) wife on hills.
As that vision outlines, this is a very nice idea.
But we’re not satisfied that an e-bike is a credible replacement for a car in most parts of our state.
Maine’s roads remain very dangerous for road users not in cars. Even those of us interested in a bike commute are often forced to accept that there is no safe way to do it, a hard reality that won’t be undone by a faster bike. Until cycle paths and sufficient space and signage are prioritized in our communities, the e-bike cannot realize anything like its full potential.
A similar program in South Portland has paid out just 25 rebates in about six months since its inception.
The website of the Governor’s Energy Office specifies the Efficiency Maine mission as being focused on “programs to improve energy efficiency for low-income, residential, commercial, and industrial participants.”
That it leads with “low-income” is, we submit, no accident. Any new initiatives under that umbrella should have that category of under-pressure household front and center. Everybody else can and will look after themselves.
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