The Bangor Daily News from Bangor, Maine • 4

A10 BANGOR DAILY NEWS WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 15 1997 From Page OneNation Fund reporting questioned Gannett purchasing Maine Broadcasting Future competitiveness profitability fuel sale Don Carrigan contributions are listed By contrast the compact filing is much more detailed and involves significantly greater sums nearly $15 million in cash and services during the last filing period The largest cash contributions included $297600 from Bowater-Great Northern Paper of Millinocket $232000 from International Paper of Charlotte NC $164800 from Georgia-Pacific Corp of Augusta $108800 from Champion International Corp of Bangor and $100000 from Fraser Paper Inc of Madawaska Bowater-Greot Northern also gave $67261 in staff time and related travel and office expenses Mead Paper of Rumford donated $33779 in similar in-kind contributions and attorney law firm even donated meeting space to the effort that the report said was worth $100 Otheh contributors include Forestry Management and Trucking of Norway $10 Kleinschmidt Associates of Pittsfield $500 Tracker Guide Service of Sebago $10 Lindsco Equipment Co of Brewer $100 Randall Madden Trucking Inc of Cardville $100 the Maine Forest Products Council $1150 in staff time and other in-kind expenses and dozens of individuals who donated as little as $5 each The pro-compact campaign spent $460054 during the last reporting period with the largest single chunk $144921 going to Winner-Wagner Mandabach Campaigns a Los Angeles firm for campaign strategy management and research The group also spent $43615 for professional fees to four individuals including the treasurer $28020 on printing and $23611 for office furniture and computer rentals and support The Vote Yes on 1 campaign officially called the Citizens for Sustainable Forests and Forest Jobs claims more than 40000 members including the Maine Forest Products Council the Alliance of Maine Maine Pulp and Paper Association the Economic Development Council of Maine the Maine Merchants Association and the Maine AFL-CIO Carter from Al ence to begin at the Capitol Building Carter denied any wrongdoing The Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices will ftot review the matter before the election according to Commission Chairman Peter Webster The group will consider the complaint at its regular meeting on Nov 12 The key to allegation is that the Vote No on 1 campaign began airing expensive radio and television advertisements on Friday although the group said it only had $18464 in its accounts when the contribution reporting period ended on Sept 30 State law requires political action committees such as to report pledged or implied contributions as well as money in hand Manahan claimed that several television stations informed his group that Carter had scheduled $100 000-worth of television air time during the week of Sept 29 That the Portland lawyer said means the Vote No on 1 campaign had or expected to receive that amount of money during the period covered by its last contribution report Responding to the allegations on Tuesday afternoon Carter said the complaint was unfounded and showed that compact supporters were desperate to derail his efforts they discredit the message they try to discredit the he said have followed the letter of the Carter said he had no idea that a large cash infusion was on its way when he filed his last report He said the campaign received approximately $150000 from Caremi Partners Ltd on Oct 8 or 9 spent one or two days producing the ads and started running the commercials on Oct 10 The funds will appear on the next filing which includes contributions from Oct 1 through Oct 23 For the second year in a row cash cow is an essentially anonymous corporation called Caremi Partners Ltd In a three-way referendum last November Ban-Clearcut- ting proposal won 29 percent of the vote while the compact garnered 47 percent and 23 percent of voters opposed both plans Another vote must be taken Nov 4 on the compact because it did not win a majority The Ban Clearcutting campaign received a similar $150000 donation from Caremi last year and came under fire for listing the address of the New York attorney instead of the address of the partnership itself which Manahan said violates Maine law Carter said he does not know who the principals in the corporation are although he has some ideas as to their identity and believes one of them lives in Maine He is certain he said that none works for the paper companies he opposes Press efforts to get details about the corporation went nowhere last year attorney who once represented artist Yoko Ono refused to give any comments Carter provided new dues on Tuesday Caremi Partners is a registered Delaware corporation but following that trail also led to a dead end The Delaware Corporations Division lists a Greenwich Conn street address for the company but Caremi is not listed with directory assistance there The agent of record United Corporate Services Inc knows only the name of the attorney and would not reveal it a spokesman said ethics complaint also charged that Carter did not reveal in-kind contributions from groups such as the Maine Chapter of the Sierra Club which last month sent out press releases opposing the compact or from Forest Ecology Network which Manahan said sent out a mass mailing in September handwritten Sept 30 report states that the anti-compact group received $22524 in contributions of less than $50 each which do not have to be itemized The campaign also received $500 from Heather Sugg of Jefferson Maine on Sept 16 The group spent $54060 at an Augusta print shop for bumper stickers and posters No in-kind Stations from Al said noting that Maine represents smallest broadcast market and its only broadcast presence in New England synergy between the two markets certainly made the whole bigger than the sum of its Another draw for Gannett said Walker was the with NBC Thompson too acknowledged strong commitment to NBC as a plus saying it will provide a for employees as well as additional resources for stories Of the 18 stations Gannett currently owns 10 are NBC affiliates making Gannett the largest group owner outside of the network When the Maine purchase is finalized 12 of 20 Gannett stations will be NBC affiliates While Gannett is well-known as the largest newspaper publishing company publishing 89 newspapers including USA Today with a combined daily circulation of 65 million it also boasts a strong presence in broadcasting and expects 30 percent of its total profits in 1997 to be generated from its broadcast business said Walker With the purchase of WLBZ and WCSH Gannett will own 16 percent or slightly more of the US television market and move a little closer to its target of owning 35 percent the maximum allowed by the FCC Gannett currently owns just under 16 percent the most part looking at larger said Walker when we find a special unique opportunity like this we respond to the The agreement was announced to employees in Portland Tuesday morning and in Bangor Tuesday afternoon They were told that no layoffs or major changes in operations are planned were overwhelmed by their said Thompson understand this business as well as we do and they see the future the same as we Survey: Women unaware of their political power Cox News Service WASHINGTON a Women despite casting the deciding vote in last presidential election still do not realize their potential for affecting the outcome of political contests according to a new survey of first-time female voters released Tuesday A major problem for women the survey indicated is that they see numerous obstacles to voting That is especially true among Hispanic women an important demographic group as Latinos grow into the largest ethnic minority group in the nation elections must be more user-friendly if larger numbers of women are to said Elisa Maria Sanchez president of MANA a national Latina organization MANA is part of the coalition of 110 organizations that make up the Vote Project which has been working since 1984 to increase the number of women voters and which sponsored the polling data released Thursday The survey conducted by Democratic pollster Celinda Lake and Republican pollster Linda Divall focused on new women voters in Colorado Georgia Massachusetts Missouri and North Carolina all of which were among the with the most significant in the 1996 presidential election The survey also included focus groups in Atlanta and Denver which according to Vote Project Chair Irene Natividad revealed the most surprising finding of the study that women had no idea their votes decided the winner between President Clinton and Republican challenger Bob Dole In the 1996 presidential election both Clinton and Dole split the vote of men 44 percent each But Clinton received 54 percent of the vote compared to 37 percent for Dole a gender gap of 17 points Even so significant numbers of women indicated that they perceive obstacles to voting: 39 percent said they have difficulty getting enough information on ballot initiatives and referenda to know how to vote 34 percent said they are deterred by long lines at the polls 22 percent said they have trouble-finding time to vote 21 percent said they sure how to use a voting machine The percentages were highest among Hispanic women in nearly every category Hispanic women in Denver also were the only focus group members who used the word to describe their feelings about the direction in which the country is going need voting to fit more easily into their time-strapped Natividad said Among other things the Vote Project promoted extending election day voting hours and allowing voting by mail as powerful incentives for more women to vote Walker too called the sessions with employees very upbeat and although he acknowledged employees feel as well Sadness and shock were the sentiments expressed by Don Carrigan executive producer for public affairs for Maine Public Television who worked for WLBZ for 18 years as a reporter anchor and ultimately as news director said Carrigan noting the long history of family ownership a public and employee point of view sad because the family has used the station to serve the community and the state very very Carrigan acknowledged however that family ownership of media outlets is declining in favor of group ownership as smaller companies move to align themselves with larger entities that are better able to deal with the technology requirements and expense associated with the shift toward digital communications The Maine Broadcasting System also owns KMEG-TV a CBS affiliate in Sioux City Iowa CSP Mobile Television Productions and other media-related businesses Again citing concerns about the future Thompson said KMEG-TV is currently on the market but a buyer has not yet been found Clinton sex life as governor being targeted The Associated Press LITTLE ROCK Ark Lawyers for Paula Jones sought on-the-record answers Tuesday from President Clinton on whether he exposed himself to her or had sex with women other than his wife when he was governor Papers filed in federal court asked that Clinton respond in writing to 72 questions including whether he asked a state trooper to summons Mrs Jones to a hotel room in May 1991 and if he used troopers to arrange liaisons with other women Another of the submitted questions asked Clinton if he had slept with a woman he appointed to an Arkansas judgeship One of the lawyers Wes Holmes of Dallas said the legal team sought to establish a pattern of conduct He said Mrs history was not relevant because she was not in a position of power piece of discovery we send out we either think pertains to issues that are relevant to the case or are reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of Holmes said A separate filing posed similar questions to state trooper Danny Ferguson a former Clinton bodyguard Both filings request answers by Nov 10 two days before lawyers are to take Mrs sworn statement 1 4 On October 20th you be in the dark anymore I 4.