Greens under attack? Maine’s third party claims the Biddeford 4 were singled out by Democratic prosecutors BY LANCE TAPLEY

Now that the ashes have begun to settle on our Democratic attorney general’s much-publicized, just-before-the-2004-election indictment of four Green Independent Party campaign workers in Biddeford for absentee-ballot fraud, it’s easier to try to judge whether it was a legitimate prosecution or a politically timed persecution, as Green leaders claim. In the past several months, three of the four cases have resulted in acquittal on the major charges, though there have been a couple of convictions on misdemeanors. The remaining case probably will never go to trial because the elderly defendant has developed lung cancer.

To begin to determine what really happened in the case of the Green workers some are calling the Biddeford 4, let’s look at the questions raised by the Greens:

Given that the investigation of the alleged crimes took place in the winter and early spring of 2004, following a February special election to fill a vacant House seat, why did Attorney General Steven Rowe’s office wait until October, a few weeks before the general election, to seek indictments from a grand jury?

Given that most of the charges did not make it past judge or jury, and that according to the AG’s office it had not prosecuted anyone for absentee-ballot fraud in 17 years, why were significant resources thrown into what proved to be weak cases?

Given that those indicted had pretty clean records (two people had some old, minor offenses) and given that two were quite elderly, why was the AG’s office so tough — insisting, for example, on six months in jail in a plea-bargain offer to one of the elderly people accused, Fred Dolgon, a man whom even the judge in his case complimented for being "an honorable guy"?

Given that a Democratic House speaker had allowed a Republican aide to be on the State House payroll pending his 2001 trial and conviction for forging petition signatures, why did Pat Colwell, the speaker in 2004 and present chair of the state Democratic Party, immediately suspend without pay Ben Chipman, assistant to Portland’s Green Representative John Eder, as soon as his indictment was announced?

And — perhaps the most important question — given that gathering absentee ballots (often from old and infirm people) is a common, informal, and unregulated affair (no official guidebook exists for its conduct), why did the AG’s office take the unusual step, in order to seek out evidence for most of the counts of the indictments, of supervising the police in questioning nearly 200 citizens whose absentee ballots had been collected by Greens?

According to many Green Party leaders, the answer to all these questions is simple: The prosecutions were "politically motivated," said Ben Meiklejohn, who was state Green Party chair in 2004 and is a member of Portland’s school board.

What could be the specific political motivation? A number of Greens point out that the Democrats were afraid in 2004 of losing the balance of power in the closely divided Legislature. The attorney general is elected by the Legislature. "If the Democratic majority was being threatened," Fred Dolgon said, Rowe could have been worried about keeping his job.

It’s easy to understand this logic. In the previous and current Legislature, there was and is only one Green, House member John Eder, who represents Portland’s West End. The State House has been so narrowly split between Democrats and Republicans that sometimes Eder’s single vote has determined the outcome of important legislation. The bare majority of Democrats were sufficiently concerned about Eder that in his first term they redistricted him out of his original legislative constituency, though he still won re-election. In October 2004, the Greens, a fast-growing party, were running 23 candidates in legislative races — and Greens often draw votes from Democrats.

The prosecutor of the Biddeford Greens, Leanne Robbin, an assistant attorney general, denounced these suspicions: "This had nothing to do with politics . . . We responded to complaints . . . I can tell you point-blank that my boss had nothing to do with it."

Rowe, who has built a reputation as a straight-shooting and (cautiously) progressive attorney general, said "it’s absolutely preposterous" to think that the prosecution was brought — "or the timing of it" — for political reasons, including considerations of his job tenure.

He said he had no involvement in the case other than Robbin telling him about it. "We treated this case as any other," he said. He expressed faith in Robbin: "Leanne is one of the most experienced prosecutors in the state."

Rowe also responded to a comment by Dolgon, who said he was struck to see Rowe promoting Democratic legislative candidates in York County around the time his office was indicting him.

"Am I a Democrat? Yes," Rowe said indignantly. "I attend political events." His partisanship, he said, has no effect on prosecutorial decisions.

WHY THE OCTOBER INDICTMENTS?

The special-election campaign in question was set in motion when, for personal reasons, Democratic State Representative Marie Laverriere-Boucher resigned her House District 18 seat in traditionally Democratic, heavily Franco-American Biddeford. An election for someone to fill out her term was called for February 3, 2004. The Democrats nominated Stephen Beaudette; the Republicans nominated Brian Pooler.

The other official political party in Maine also held a caucus. When Biddeford’s District 18 Greens gathered on January 14, only two registered party members showed up, in addition to the sole candidate asking for the party’s nomination, Dorothy LaFortune. She had no problem obtaining it. She had been the Green Party candidate for a State Senate seat in 2002, she had run for the city council in 2003, and — for a Green — she had achieved respectable tallies in each race.

Many people, though, questioned the Greens’ choice. LaFortune was and is notorious in Biddeford. A former cable public-access talk-show host who had been taken off the air when she began airing accusations of misbehavior by local officials, she had been forced from her home two months previous to the caucus by a Biddeford police SWAT team and charged with criminal trespass, of which she later was convicted, in the culmination of a long-running battle over city back taxes. Her house had been foreclosed on and sold at auction, but she had refused to leave.

Despite her liabilities as a candidate — which caused dissention among the state’s Green activists — the party’s leadership felt it had to support her. Ben Chipman of Portland, the Greens’ chief organizer, became her campaign manager. Two York County Greens, Wayne Whitten and Fred Dolgon — the latter a well-known and longtime progressive enthusiast — joined the campaign; they also sympathized with LaFortune in her troubles. Under her direction, they began soliciting absentee ballots, largely from her supporters, particularly old people.

Getting absentee ballots from elders — and anybody you can — has long been done in campaigns, but it has become an especially energetic activity in Maine since our election law was liberalized a few years back, requiring no reason for a voter to request an absentee ballot. In the last presidential election, 49 percent of voters in Scarborough cast absentee ballots, according to the Press Herald. Around 20 percent was reported in Portland. In special elections, absentee collection is particularly important because there usually is low turnout at the polls.

Joining Dolgon and Whitten in absentee-ballot gathering in Biddeford, among other workers, was LaFortune’s close friend, former Biddeford City Councilor Phillip Castora, another Green. In an interview, LaFortune said Castora, Whitten, and she had all been Greens since before her State Senate run. Dolgon and Chipman have been Greens for many years.