Dozens of activists called on legislators Tuesday to make Maine the latest state to formally endorse a U.S. Constitutional amendment they say will keep special interests from having an excessive impact on elections.

The State House rally, led by Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, closely followed the third anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision that stripped away many campaign spending restrictions that had applied to corporations and unions.

“We need a U.S. Constitutional amendment that will allow us to regulate the raising and spending of campaign funds on a federal and state level,” Andrew Bossie, executive director of the clean elections group, told cheering rally participants. “We also need to clarify the nature of corporate entities in their roles in our elections and governments.”

Bossie’s group is also concerned that Gov. Paul Le- Page’s proposed budget cuts $4 million from the state fund that covers campaign expenses for eligible legislative and gubernatorial candidates, which would essentially eliminate the program in the 2014 elections. Bossie said that comes at a time when the state needs to be strengthening its clean election law, “not weakening it.”

With the Citizens United decision, independent and third-party organizations were able to contribute as much as they wanted to influence races in Maine’s last round of legislative elections. That’s what happened in Democratic Sen. Geoffrey Gratwick’s campaign in which he defeated incumbent Republican Sen. Nichi Farnham of Bangor in November. Each candidate had been allocated $21,000 for their campaigns under the state Clean Election law, but $450,000 was spent on the race by outside parties.

“This is not just wrong, this is obscenely wrong, this is outrageously wrong,” Gratwick told the rally. “This is not money given by local citizens, this is not money given by local businesses. This is money given by people with a different agenda than those I represent in Bangor and Hermon.”

The advocates displayed a stack of more than 11,000 postcards from voters calling on lawmakers to support the constitutional amendment.

Several legislators and some locally elected officials also attended the event, which was moved inside from the bitter cold in the Capitol courtyard.

Bossie said Maine would become the 12th state to formally offer support of a constitutional amendment should it pass in the Democratic majority Legislature.

In Maine, at least 25 towns have passed resolutions resolution calling for a constitutional amendment, and several more are considering it, Bossie said.

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