AUGUSTA (AP) — Efforts to patch up a gaping hole left by the courts in Maine’s public campaign financing law failed Thursday as the state Senate voted to remove the socalled “matching fund” provision from the law. The bill faces further House and Senate votes.

After a debate that went on for more than two hours, senators rejected two proposals aimed at making up for the elimination of matching funds, a key component of the Maine Clean Election Act. Publicly funded candidates receive those extra infusions of money when their privately funded opponents receive additional funding or funding on their behalf.

But last summer, the U.S. Supreme Court declared illegal the matching fund provision in Arizona’s public financing law, which is similar to Maine’s.

With the elimination of matching funds, “we are left with a shell of the former Clean Election Act,” said Sen. Roger Katz, R-Augusta, author of one of the amendments, which would have increased distributions to qualifying candidates and allowed them to collect more private startup money.