Lawmaker sues Maine in bid to split referendum targeting CMP corridor into 3 questions

BANGOR DAILY NEWS • June 3, 2021

A lawmaker who backs Central Maine Power’s $1 billion hydropower corridor is suing Secretary of State Shenna Bellows in a bid to force her to split one anti-corridor referendum set for the state’s November ballot into three separate questions. Rep. Chris Caiazzo, D-Scarborough, filed the lawsuit in Cumberland County Superior Court Thursday. As the referendum is currently written, it will ask voters if they would like to ban “high-impact” transmission lines in the upper Kennebec region and require the Legislature to approve similar projects on public lands with a two-thirds vote retroactively to 2014. The complaint, filed by Pierce Atwood attorneys who have represented the CMP-funded political committee Clean Energy Matters in prior corridor lawsuits, said splitting the referendum into separate sections would allow voters to better understand the questions.