Barbara Merrill
Encyclopedia
Barbara Merrill 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.
Merrill furthered her legal career by working for the Maine law firm Verrill Dana before opening her own legal practice with husband, Phil Merrill.
, 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.
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.
During the general election campaign period large “independent” expenditures were made by the Republican and Democratic Governors Association: $714,500 by the Republicans to support State Senator Woodcock, the Republican nominee, and $550,000 by the Democrats to support Democrat Baldacci in his reelection bid. Green candidate LaMarche challenged these expenditures as not truly “independent” in a case before the Maine Supreme Court heard on October 31, 2006. The court did not grant LaMarche’s claim. In a related claim, Barbara Merrill challenged the "independence" of consultant services benefiting the Baldacci campaign before the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics in a hearing held on October 31, 2006. The Commission did not support Merrill’s claim.
With total campaign expenditures of $915,000, Barbara Merrill received 21.5 % of the general election vote. Baldacci was reelected with 38.11 % of the vote after spending $1,313,000 in addition to the independent expenditures discussed above. Republican Woodcock received 30.21% of the vote after expending $1,325,000 in addition to independent expenditures. Green candidate LaMarche received 9.5 % of the vote after expending $1,127,000.
After the election a routine audit of the Merrill campaign raised a question as to whether the Merrill campaign had a conflict of interest and violated the law in hiring the candidate’s husband, Philip Merrill, to produce media and the media buy for the campaign. The issue was addressed at a meeting of the Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices held on July 16, 2007. The Chair, Michael Friedman, Esq, the only non-party member of the Commission, spoke for the majority when he found that “the conflict of interest issue did not have merit.” He said “everyone also seems to agree that the Merrill campaign did not violate any law or rule.” Friedman found the Philip Merrill was a qualified professional and was paid a reasonable sum for his services. Friedman concluded “there was nothing before the Commission in this case that was illegal or unethical.”
In the next legislative session, the Maine legislature considered legislation to prohibit hiring members of the candidate’s household to work in Maine campaigns. The Ethics Panel did not support the legislation. The legislature did not pass the ban. Instead the Maine legislature enacted a law requiring that any family member hired by a campaign must be a professional at what they were hired to do and that they could only be paid a reasonable sum for their services. 2007 Chapter Law Chapter 567 Passed in April 2008 amending MRSA Title 21-A Section 1125 sub-sec6-B. The Commission had expressly found the Merrilll campaign’s hiring of Philip Merrill met both of these conditions in July 2007
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
politician
Politics of the United States
The United States is a federal constitutional republic, in which the President of the United States , Congress, and judiciary share powers reserved to the national government, and the federal government shares sovereignty with the state governments.The executive branch is headed by the President...
from Maine
Maine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
. Elected as a Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
to the state legislature
Maine Legislature
The Maine Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maine. It is a bicameral body composed of the lower house Maine House of Representatives and the upper house Maine Senate...
, she left the party in 2006 to become an independent
Independent (politician)
In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...
candidate for Governor of Maine
Maine gubernatorial election, 2006
The Maine gubernatorial election of 2006 took place on November 7, 2006. Incumbent Democrat John Baldacci was then re-elected to his second term....
.
Merrill lost to Democratic incumbent John Baldacci
John Baldacci
John Elias Baldacci is an American politician who served as the 73rd Governor of the U.S. state of Maine from 2003 until 2011. A Democrat, he also served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003....
who was elected to a second term. She finished in third-place receiving 118,715 votes, or about 21% of all votes cast.
Merrill furthered her legal career by working for the Maine law firm Verrill Dana before opening her own legal practice with husband, Phil Merrill.
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 WarKorean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, rose to the rank of Lt. Colonel, and was killed in Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
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
University of Maine
The University of Maine is a public research university located in Orono, Maine, United States. The university was established in 1865 as a land grant college and is referred to as the flagship university of the University of Maine System...
, 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
Maine House of Representatives
The Maine House of Representatives is the lower house of the Maine Legislature. The House consists of 151 members representing an equal amount of districts across the state. Each voting member of the House represents around 8,450 citizens of the state...
in Appleton
Appleton, Maine
Appleton is a town in Knox County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,271 at the 2000 census.-History:The town was named for Samuel Appleton, father-in-law of Amos Lawrence, founder of Lawrence University.-Geography:...
. 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 Setting the Maine Course: We Can Get There from Here, 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
Caucus
A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a political party or movement, especially in the United States and Canada. As the use of the term has been expanded the exact definition has come to vary among political cultures.-Origin of the term:...
. This temporarily threw the House into turmoil, as the two major parties became tied in number of members, until Rep. Joanne Twomey
Joanne Twomey
Joanne T. Twomey is a Maine politician. Twomey, a Democrat, represented part of Biddeford from 1998-2006. She served on the agriculture, conservation and forestry; natural resources; engrossed bills committees, including a stint as chair of the engrossed bills. Twomey was elected Mayor of...
, 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
Saco, Maine
Saco is a city in York County, Maine, United States. The population was 18,482 at the 2010 census. It is home to Ferry Beach State Park, Funtown Splashtown USA, Thornton Academy, as well as General Dynamics Armament Systems , a subsidiary of the defense contractor General Dynamics...
, 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
Clean elections
"Clean Elections" is a term used to describe a particular system of government financing of political campaigns, in which the government provides a grant to candidates who agree to limit their and private fundraising efforts and limit their campaign-spending.- In the United States :Clean Election...
Fund, thus qualifying her campaign for partial public funding.
During the general election campaign period large “independent” expenditures were made by the Republican and Democratic Governors Association: $714,500 by the Republicans to support State Senator Woodcock, the Republican nominee, and $550,000 by the Democrats to support Democrat Baldacci in his reelection bid. Green candidate LaMarche challenged these expenditures as not truly “independent” in a case before the Maine Supreme Court heard on October 31, 2006. The court did not grant LaMarche’s claim. In a related claim, Barbara Merrill challenged the "independence" of consultant services benefiting the Baldacci campaign before the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics in a hearing held on October 31, 2006. The Commission did not support Merrill’s claim.
With total campaign expenditures of $915,000, Barbara Merrill received 21.5 % of the general election vote. Baldacci was reelected with 38.11 % of the vote after spending $1,313,000 in addition to the independent expenditures discussed above. Republican Woodcock received 30.21% of the vote after expending $1,325,000 in addition to independent expenditures. Green candidate LaMarche received 9.5 % of the vote after expending $1,127,000.
After the election a routine audit of the Merrill campaign raised a question as to whether the Merrill campaign had a conflict of interest and violated the law in hiring the candidate’s husband, Philip Merrill, to produce media and the media buy for the campaign. The issue was addressed at a meeting of the Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices held on July 16, 2007. The Chair, Michael Friedman, Esq, the only non-party member of the Commission, spoke for the majority when he found that “the conflict of interest issue did not have merit.” He said “everyone also seems to agree that the Merrill campaign did not violate any law or rule.” Friedman found the Philip Merrill was a qualified professional and was paid a reasonable sum for his services. Friedman concluded “there was nothing before the Commission in this case that was illegal or unethical.”
In the next legislative session, the Maine legislature considered legislation to prohibit hiring members of the candidate’s household to work in Maine campaigns. The Ethics Panel did not support the legislation. The legislature did not pass the ban. Instead the Maine legislature enacted a law requiring that any family member hired by a campaign must be a professional at what they were hired to do and that they could only be paid a reasonable sum for their services. 2007 Chapter Law Chapter 567 Passed in April 2008 amending MRSA Title 21-A Section 1125 sub-sec6-B. The Commission had expressly found the Merrilll campaign’s hiring of Philip Merrill met both of these conditions in July 2007