Maine GOP Party Head Calls for Resignation of Democratic Party Secretary

August 25, 2011

In the midst of a public hearing on congressional redistricting yesterday, the secretary of the Maine Democratic Party, in an off-hand remark, alleged that Republican Senate President Kevin Raye records constituents' telephone calls without their consent. Raye immediately denied the allegation and requested an apology, and GOP state Chairman Charlie Webster said the Democratic official should resign. Neither has happened yet, but state Democratic leaders want to make clear that the secretary was not speaking for the party

It was supposed to be a hearing about competing partisan plans for congressional redistricting--that is until Maine Democratic Party Secretary Susan Cook of Bath, offered a little piece of information that created a political firestorm.

"We now have a president of the Maine Senate who records constituents' phone calls without their consent and indeed without even announcing as insurance companies do," Cook said.

Cook's remarks came on top of Democratic suggestions that Senate President Kevin Raye of Perry wants to redraw the boundaries the 2nd Congressional District in a way that would be more GOP-voter friendly, and could boost his chances in the event he chooses to run for Congress next year.

When Raye heard the taped remarks played back to him, he was astonished. "It was stunned disbelief, I couldn't believe what I had heard--it was astounding," Raye says. "I think at the very least, this Susan Cook owes an apology to me for making such a slanderous allegation, and I think she owes an apology to the public. She made this allegation in the course of her public testimony, and it's not lost on me or anyone that she is the secretary of the Maine Democratic Party, one of the four highest-ranking positions in the Democratic Party hierarchy."

"I had not heard of this issue until Susan raised it on her own yesterday at this hearing," says Democratic Party Chair Ben Grant. "She was not speaking on behalf of the party, nor is this anything that the party is pursuing in any way, and frankly I was disappointed that this issue came up at all."

Grant was in the midst of a highly partisan showdown over competing Republican and Democratic plans for congressional redistricting, and Cook's allegations about Raye appeared to catch him off-guard. State Republican Chairman Charlie Webster says the situation reflects how Democrats really think, and he called for Cook to step down immediately.

"I find it hard to believe that she would make such statements about Sen. Raye," Webster said. "I mean, obviously, everyone knows that he's a middle-of-the-road kind of guy. He reaches out to both sides trying to make things happen. This is typical of what the Democrats--particularly of what the leadership of the Democrat Party--is all about."

On the Democratic side, Grant made it clear that the party wasn't going to demand that Cook apologize or agree to Webster's demand that she resign. "No I'm not taking any cues from Charlie Webster," Grant says. "Charlie Webster spent all summer accusing Democrats of all sorts of crimes and I haven't asked for his resignation, so I think he should keep his nose in his own business and leave us to this matter. And I've dealt with it, I think, in an appropriate way."

But what if someone does record a telephone call without asking? Does that violate the law? "Maine law does not require that two parties to a telephone conversation--both of whom are speaking in Maine--it does not require that each party consent to the conversation being recorded, so that one party has the right to record the conversation regardless of whether that party informs the other party that they are doing it," says Bernie Kubetz, an attorney with Eaton-Peabody in Bangor who specializes in communications law.

Kubetz says that while telephone conversations require only one-party consent within the state of Maine, there are other states that have not adopted such laws, and that a call recorded from such a state could raise some legal issues. But there could be some ethical considerations.

"Ethics and niceties aside, it may not be illegal, but that certainly doesn't address the ethical improprieties of essentially secretly recording a call with someone," Kubetz says. "That certainly is different than eavesdropping on a call that you're not a legitimate party to, but, still, ethically speaking, I think the better way to proceed is to let the person on the other end know that you are recording it."

Currently there are 12 states that do not permit single-party consent for recording telephone conversations.

Courtesy of MPBN

Reported By: A.J. Higgins

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