Independent gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler has proposed a much-needed change in the way Maine chooses its governor. Under the Cutler plan, the only people allowed to run would be those with the initials E.C.

It should be an interesting race among Eric Clapton, Elvis Costello, e.e. cummings, Eric Cartman and the English Channel.

I’d consider voting for South Park’s Cartman, because not only are all the other contenders either foreigners, fake names, deceased or geographic features, but also because Cartman looks and talks like a little version of Paul LePage, only without the great restraint LePage exerts to avoid making offensive comments. Sure, Cartman has the disadvantage of being fictional, but so are most of the governor’s speeches.

Of course, I’m kidding about Cutler making this preposterous proposal, which would be extremely self-serving on his part. Instead of a reform plan limited to advancing his own interests, the millionaire lawyer has put forth a comprehensive package of ideas designed to alleviate flaws in our electoral system – and make it easier for him to get elected.

“This campaign for governor is a race between reform and business as usual, between bold ideas and the status quo,” Cutler told a Portland news conference. “Voters are hungry for much more than just a choice between what isn’t working now and what didn’t work before.”

Instead, he’s offering a choice between what doesn’t work in other states and what doesn’t work in other states and Portland, too.

Cutler wants Maine to adopt either open primaries – in which all candidates, regardless of party affiliation, run against each other, with the top two finishers facing off in the general election – or ranked-choice voting – in which voters rate the contenders from best to worst, with the last place candidates dropped from the running one by one until somebody gets a majority.

Louisiana has used open primaries for gubernatorial and congressional races for decades, while earning a reputation for electing some of the most corrupt politicians in the nation. Studies have shown this method provides a significant edge to incumbents, who find it easier to best a fractured field of opponents than to fend off a single primary challenger. Even when there’s an open seat, the final two contenders are frequently from the same party, effectively leaving voters of other enrollments to choose between unpleasant and unpalatable.

Portland picks its mayor using ranked-choice voting, which has resulted in the same guy winning the job who would have won if regular old plurality voting had been used. It’s also worth noting that, in spite of promises of proponents, ranked-choice didn’t result in a mayor with majority support. It only produced a winner who got a majority of the votes on those ballots backing one of the top two candidates. In other words, this complicated system renders results that are just as flawed as the previous method.

Cutler also wants to eliminate what he calls “a corrupting flood of special interest dollars that increasingly drives our political parties to the extremes – where the money is – and poisons our politics with excessive and destructive partisanship.”

I assume E.C. is just kidding around here, since he’s openly backing a lawsuit filed by his supporters that seeks to significantly increase the amount of cash individuals can give to independent candidates. A federal judge recently granted those plaintiffs a preliminary injunction allowing them to double the amount they can donate to Cutler’s campaign from $1,500 to $3,000 and (inadvertently) allowing new donors to Democrat Mike Michaud and Republican LePage to increase their contributions by similar amounts.

No doubt Cutler had tongue in cheek when he told reporters that change was “an important first step in reforming our political process.”

Actually, Cutler does have one good idea (which puts him one up on Michaud and one behind LePage), which is to outlaw leadership political action committees. These PACs are slush funds filled with donations from special interests. They’re maintained by candidates for legislative leadership posts – often people who are running their own campaigns using taxpayer dollars so they can claim they’re “clean.” They then use the “dirty” cash to curry favor with other state House and Senate hopefuls.

It’s like bribery, only legal.

In general, though, the Cutler plan to reform Maine politics is designed not to deter corruption or refocus campaigning on issues that matter, but to clear away pesky obstacles that are keeping E.C. from relocating from his Cape Elizabeth mansion to the Blaine House.

As for that idea of limiting the gubernatorial field to those with the initials E.C., Cutler has taken that off the table. The Egotistical Carpetbagger just got poll numbers showing that if that became law, he’d still lose to Democratic 2nd Congressional District candidate Emily Cain.

Send your Erudite Comments to me at aldiamon@herniahill.net.