Let there be light!

A refreshing bit of legislative work came to light last week, a state-level bill that would open private intraparty meetings of lawmakers to interested members of the public. This push for greater transparency deserves Mainers’ support. The access will work in their best interest.

L.D. 12, put forward by Republican Rep. Rick Bennett of Oxford, would apply to meetings of three or more lawmakers of the same party. The bill would add so-called “legislative caucuses” to the types of meetings covered by the state’s Freedom of Access Act.

The last time we wrote about the legislative caucus was in March of last year (“Closed-door meeting on gun policy was ill-advised”), reacting with disappointment to the news that a group of Maine Democrats conducted a private or “closed-door” meeting with a representative from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The decision to conduct that meeting in that manner, as we wrote then, may not have broken any rules but assuredly “sent the wrong message at an already tense time.”

Let’s remove the opportunity to make such decisions; let’s break Augusta’s habit of breaking into caucuses; let’s throw open the doors.

Editor’s note: The Maine Press Association, of which the Maine Trust for Local News is a member, has submitted written testimony in support of Bennett’s bill. (Is the Pope a Catholic?)