Once embraced as a national model for public campaign financing, the Maine Clean Election Act is now in trouble, abandoned by increasing numbers of lawmakers who are opting instead for private funding. Supporters of the program are now demanding changes to strengthen the system, and encouraging voters to make campaign finance reform a priority issue for their legislative candidates.

Back in 1996, Maine voters approved public financing for legislative races. And in the years following, running as a clean election candidate came to be viewed as a positive. But the times may be changing.

"I think some of that cache is gone," says Dan Demeritt, a Republican political consultant who formerly served as communications director for Gov. Paul LePage. He says the days of the Clean Election Act are numbered.

"You look at our elections today and what people are getting in the mailboxes, hearing on the radio and seeing on tv, it doesn't appear to be all that clean," Demeritt says. "There's so much outside money in politics that the term 'clean campaign' or 'clean elections' doesn't seem to have the cache that it used to have.'"

Several decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court have helped to encourage that outside money. One was Citizens United, which found that money equals free speech. The other was a ruling that struck down the so-called "matching funds" provision of Clean Elections laws in all three states that had them, including Maine.

That ruling meant that a public candidate who was outspent by a privately-funded candidate could draw down matching public funds. For more than a decade, that provision had kept the lid on spending in many races. Andrew Bossie of Maine Citizens for Clean Elections says with that lid now removed, Maine's campaign landscape has turned into the Wild West, and the Legislature has so far failed to intervene.

"We said during the legislative session that if 'matching funds' was not replaced we'd see more private money making its way back into elections and that's exactly what we're seeing here today -- more private money in the hands of candidates and an explosion of money being spent by outside groups trying to influence elections," Bossie says.

A new report from Bossie's organization shows that, to date, spending by third parties in legislatives races -- known as independent expenditures -- has increased from a total of $1.5 million in the 2010 legislative election to just over $2.5 million this year -- and there is still a week of big spending to come.

In addition to the independent expenditures, Bossie says the demise of the matching funds provision has prompted more candidates to run as privately-funded candidates. The result points to what some say is the beginning of the unraveling of the state's 16-year-old Clean Election Act. Bossie says the system's supporters must stop the bleeding.

"The solution is to move forward with campaign finance reforms that put people first," Bossie says. "That means strengthening clean elections and that means reducing the role that special interest groups play in our elections and government."

And some supporters of Clean Elections, including Democratic state Rep. Diane Russell of Portland, say the system is worth saving.

"The great thing about the Clean Election system is that someone like me, who is a convenience store worker, could actually become a politician in this state," Russell says.

Russell says the system has had a leveling effect on Maine politics and has encouraged people from all walks of life to run for the Legislature. She says she will support all efforts to strengthen the system, as she seeks her third term in the Maine House of Representatives.