"Adopt-A-Candidate" Aims To Clean Up Elections

SACO, MAINE (CT) - Maine prides itself on its clean environment- as home to Acadia National Park and miles of Atlantic Ocean coastline- and its clean elections, thanks to a public election financing system championed by Governor Angus King. So it's no wonder that a reform movement has taken root in the town of Saco. "Adopt a Candidate"Â? hopes to use volunteers across the country to beat back the trends toward candidates providing extra access to financial backers and using negative advertising. "Adopt a Candidate is based on the Adopt a Highway system that so many states use,"Â? said Debra Torker, one of Adopt a Candidate's main proponents. "In fact, we pretty much stole the whole idea from them. I guess that's not very honest and open, so I guess I should quit." Torker ended her interview abruptly, leaving colleague Joe Dewitt to explain. "Just as people can sponsor highway sections to keep them clean from debris and decay, our group will sponsor candidates as they campaign for office. Let's say Bill Simon wants to run an attack ad in California against Gray Davis. Simon's sponsors would be there to keep the ads above the belt."Â? In return for service, candidates would agree to wear a sign acknowledging their sponsors. Most politicians have given cautious support, with others taking stronger stands. Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, a staunch campaign reform foe, responded to questions by saying "If I could burn their houses down, I would." Reform-friendly Senator Russell Feingold of Wisconsin announced he would personally have sixteen volunteers with him at all times. The last remaining issue for Adopt a Candidate is how to deal with the Ku Klux Klan, who won several court cases for the right to sponsor Adopt a Highway programs and now hope to sponsor several ultraconservative candidates.