Partisan flare-ups erupted Monday during a work session on bills sponsored by two prominent Democratic legislators who say that citizen initiatives and people's vetoes are vulnerable to fraud and manipulation. Republican opponents of both bills see the legislation as a way to hamstring citizens who want exercise their right to influence government policies at the ballot box.

State Sen. Debra Plowman says she had it with Democratic efforts to tighten up some perceived loose ends in the state's citizen initiative laws. In fact, the Hamden Republican says that if Democrats enact changes to existing people's veto laws -- she'll lead a people's veto effort to overturn them. And she says she won't be alone.

"You don't have to worry about just seeing Republicans running over to the Secretary of State", says Plowman. "You're going to see independents, Greens, Tea Party. The people decide what they want to veto, and they're going to veto their last line of defense being yanked from them."

In what is likely to become one of the biggest partisan battlegrounds in what's left of this year's legislative session, a showdown is looming over bills that would change the citizen initiative and people's veto process. Democratic House Majority Whip Seth Berry, of Bowdoinham, is sponsoring one of the bills that -- among other things -- would permit any Maine voter to retract their signature from a citizen petition if they believe the document?s circulator or proponents misled them about what the petition?s proposal would or would not do. Berry says Republicans paid circulators to misrepresent the facts about the effort to repeal a sales tax law supported by majority Democrats. Plowman accuses Berry of doing the same thing, a charge that Berry denies.
Berry says he'd like to see the Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee reach consensus on aspects of his bill and another submitted by state Sen. John Nutting, a Leeds Democrat. But he also understands that the political atmosphere is hgihly charged.

"I think we need to back off the partisanship on these bills, and decide just what is good policy", says Berry." We know for sure that voters want control over their vote and their signature and that they want good information. They overwhelmingly support transparency. They want to know who is paid and who is paying for their signature".

Democrats, who have maintained an almost exclusive majority in the Legislature for more than 30 years, have experienced setbacks at the ballot box as the result of the people's veto option and they are suspicious of out of state firms that pay people to collect and record the sigatures needed to get the challenges on the ballot. Republicans see the citizen iniative legislation as an attempt to make the signature-gathering process more cumbersome and intimidating. As members of the legislative panel tried to explore the nuances of the bills, tensions were evident. Republican state Rep. Stacey Fitts, of Pittsfield, cried foul when Democratic Senate Chair Nancy Sullivan of Biddeford tried to rein in what she thought was a lengthy personal personal viewpoint being offered by the legislator.
Lawmakers on the panel are expected to continue work on the two bills Wednesday, although Republicans are promising a divided report when a vote is taken.