LEWISTON, Maine — The organizer of a people’s veto referendum aimed at repealing a law that allows cities and towns to pay General Assistance benefits to asylum-seeking immigrants for up to two years said he hopes to start collecting signatures soon.
But the question could face competition from another proposal for a ballot measure being sought by the Maine Republican Party. That question would ask voters in November 2016 to enact a series of welfare reforms, including a ban on General Assistance to asylum seekers.
Stavros Mendros, a Republican and former state lawmaker from Lewiston, said Monday he has heard back from the Maine secretary of state’s office on the proposed wording for the people’s veto question that, if approved, would overturn LD 369, a new law that allows eligible legal nonresidents to apply for and collect General Assistance benefits while they await work permits from the federal government.
Despite the possible conflict with the Maine Republican Party’s planned initiative, Mendros said he intended to take the steps necessary to have the state issue the petitions he would use to gather signatures from Maine voters.
Mendros said he wants to start gathering signatures with volunteers during the Great Falls Balloon Festival this weekend and said he also was working with the Maine GOP on its ballot measure.
The earliest the people’s veto question could go to voters is June 2016, but if Mendros and his supporters are able to collect the signatures of 61,123 Maine voters before Oct. 14, the date the new law becomes effective, the new law would be put on hold until after the June vote.
Otherwise the law will go into effect and would have to be repealed either by the Legislature or a separate ballot question that would go before voters in June 2016 at the earliest.
Medros said he intended to accept the question either Monday or Tuesday but may also suspend signature collection later if he decides to focus on the overall GOP ballot question. He estimates the cost of running a successful signature drive in Maine at about $100,000 and said he does not want to compete with the Maine GOP for donations supporting essentially the same cause.
“I’m having conversations with people about it,” Mendros said.
He said he prefers going with the people’s veto because the city of Lewiston is facing about $165,000 a year in costs from paying General Assistance to immigrants who are awaiting work permits.
“I prefer going with the citizens veto because it more directly affects us in the city of Lewiston, where everybody else wants to go the other way with the ballot question (in 2016) because it would affect the whole state,” Mendros said.
He also said that it would be very difficult to collect the signatures necessary by Oct. 14 if he didn’t launch the gathering effort within the next week.
“There just won’t be enough time,” he said.
Mendros said he has raised about a third of the estimated $100,000 he believes it would take to mount a successful signature-gathering campaign.
Meanwhile, Jason Savage, a spokesman for the Maine Republican Party, said a group of party executives and volunteers is busy drafting the party’s proposal for the 2016 ballot question. Details of that plan would be available soon, he said.
Savage said the party’s proposal would entail a more comprehensive approach to welfare reform and likely would include elements from several bills Republican lawmakers were unable to advance in the Legislature.
“We have a very broad group of people working on the details of our plan right now,” Savage said. “I can’t tell you exactly when (details will be released) but it won’t be too long. I think it’s fair to say the welfare reform policy and proposal we are looking at will be substantive. It will be more than just one narrow issue.”
The Maine GOP faces a February deadline to place a welfare reform question on the June 2016 ballot.
Maine Secretary of State Matt Dunlap said Mendros faces a tight timeframe to deliver signatures in time for them to be validated before Oct. 14.
“It’s not impossible,” Dunlap said Monday, “But it would be unprecedented if they were able to pull it off, especially with only volunteers.”