Baldacci betrayal? Anti-bear-baiters say he reneged on his promise to stay neutral — and then there’s that issue of using Fish & Wildlife to campaign against the referendum BY LANCE TAPLEY

During his campaign for governor, John Baldacci sought and received support from national animal-protection activists, promising them that if elected neither he nor the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Department would interfere in this year’s referendum to ban bear baiting, according to prominent activists.

As a result of what he said, Humane USA, the nonpartisan political action committee associated with the Humane Society of the United States — the chief financer of the November ballot measure — endorsed Democrat Baldacci, the activists say. Humane USA sent a mailing urging his election (along with endorsements of US Senator Susan Collins and congressman Tom Allen) to 10,000 supporters in Maine.

In his first year in office, however, without consulting the animal-protection community, Baldacci announced his opposition to the initiated bill and allowed his fish and wildlife department to work against it.

"I have disgust at the naked dishonesty and hypocrisy" of Baldacci’s actions, says Wayne Pacelle, senior vice president of the seven-million-member Humane Society and chairman of Humane USA, from his office in Washington, DC, where both groups are headquartered.

The bear-baiting bill, put out to a vote because 500 volunteers collected a record-setting 98,000 petition signatures, would also ban bear trapping and hunting bears with hounds. The bill’s title is "An Act Prohibiting Certain Bear Hunting Practices."

The bill’s proponents view these practices as inhumane and unsporting. Baiting usually involves guides setting out pastries or other food to attract bears that are then shot at close range by trophy hunters in tree stands. Hunting with radio-collared hounds frequently drives a bear up a tree, where it is easily killed. Maine is the only state that allows bear trapping for sport.

Opponents — most prominent, the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine (SAM) — see a threat to Maine hunting traditions. This particular tradition also shoots money into the weak northern-Maine economy. The state wildlife department argues against interference with its management of the bear population, which is largely accomplished by hunters.

THE CRUCIAL CONVERSATION

Wayne Pacelle relates that in September 2002, while local activists and his group were drafting the initiative petition, he had a telephone conversation with candidate Baldacci. The then-US congressman for the Second District gave his assurance, Pacelle says, that if he were elected Inland Fisheries and Wildlife would stay out of the dispute: "He said a state agency shouldn’t get involved," and "he also said that he personally would stay out of it."

On that basis, Pacelle says, "we decided to endorse him."

Baldacci’s position "was quite clear," Pacelle adds, anger detectable in his voice. He says he knew Baldacci when he was in Washington because he oversees the Humane Society’s lobbying activities. Pacelle is one of the key national figures in the animal-protection movement. Before moving to the Humane Society 10 years ago, he was executive director of The Fund for Animals.

Baldacci’s position on the bear issue "was a litmus test" for Humane USA’s endorsement, Pacelle claims.

In the text of the letter sent to 10,000 activists, however, no mention is made of the bear issue. Several other issues are cited instead, including Baldacci’s opposition to cockfighting, "puppy mills," and "canned hunts."

"This was before our rollout of the [bear-baiting ban] campaign," Pacelle says in explanation.

He didn’t ask Baldacci to support the initiative, he says. He just wanted him to "stay out of the fray. Let the people decide the issue. Make sure that the staff at Inland Fisheries and Wildlife don’t take state time to oppose the initiative. Keep the state agencies out of electioneering."

He was especially shocked by Baldacci’s turnabout, he says, because "he had reached out to us and we had responded."

Pacelle also feels burned by Baldacci’s negative public characterization of the Humane Society as an out-of-state organization that, in Pacelle’s words, "shouldn’t be meddling in Maine elections — but he was happy to solicit Humane USA’s support in his own election campaign."

Humane USA’s 2002 letter of endorsement also praised Baldacci for his pledge "to include non-hunters in debates over state fish and wildlife issues." After this praise, Pacelle finds it ironic that Baldacci didn’t consult him or others involved in the animal-protection cause before he took his position on the referendum.

In a similar hypocritical way, Pacelle says, Baldacci was eager to talk to him when he was running for governor, but he refused to meet with him to discuss the issue after Pacelle heard Baldacci had opposed the bear-baiting ban.

When last fall he finally met with Richard Davies, a gubernatorial aide, to express his concern that Baldacci had reneged on his commitment, he says Davies just listened — "he was essentially mute." Pacelle says he never got a return phone call from him or the governor.

For Pacelle, the hypocrisy of the governor’s office seems unbounded. Early this year, a freedom-of-access request by a pro-referendum activist unearthed an email message between Davies and Dan Martin, Inland Fisheries and Wildlife commissioner. Davies wrote that the administration might want to meet with Pacelle because "we might pick up some useful information." The anti-bear-baiting campaign provided to the Phoenix a copy of this and other freedom-of-access-obtained documents.

Baldacci at first refused to publicly address Pacelle’s accusations. When approached before a recent Augusta speaking engagement and told that the charges against him included his reneging on an understanding with the animal-protection activists as well as "dishonesty," he replied several times: "I have no comment."

The next day, Baldacci’s chief public-relations man, Lee Umphrey, called this reporter to say that "the governor says he never made a commitment one way or the other on this" issue to the animal-protection people. "His position right now is to rely on the expertise of the biologists in the [wildlife] department."

The following day, Umphrey emailed that "the governor has no recollection of making a pre-election promise to the humane society on the bear-baiting issue — and that the discussion was on a broad scope of issues."