HOTLY CONTESTED OR ONE-SIDED, SPENDING HEAVY ON BOTH INITIATIVES

The campaign over the Maine citizen initiative on abortion has featured
high-spending efforts on both sides. The one on medical marijuana, in
contrast, has been a one-sided affair organizationally.

But that doesn't mean there is no money involved in the second campaign. In
fact, Mainers for Medical Rights, virtually unchallenged by organized
opposition as it promotes passage of the marijuana proposal, has come up
with about $650,000 to finance its drive.

This month alone, according to campaign finance statements, Mainers for
Medical Rights received $170,670 in cash and $41,724.65 in in-kind
contributions from Americans for Medical Rights of Santa Monica, Calif.

The same California-based group, says the leader of the Maine campaign, has
supplied ''90 percent plus'' of the funding for Mainers for Medical Rights
over a two-year period.

''We're really the only proposal of the year, Maine being the only
referendum of 1999'' on medical marijuana, says Craig Brown, the chief
Mainers for Medical Rights organizer.

As such, Maine has become the focus of a continuing effort by ''three
wealthy philanthropists'' to win popular support for the use of marijuana
by seriously ill people who might benefit medically from it, Brown says.

The trio of contributors, who have been active nationally in the same
cause, includes George Soros, the internationally known investor. Brown
identified the other two donors as insurance man Peter Lewis and John
Sperling, founder of the University of Phoenix.

The effort to authorize marijuana use for medicinal purposes is on a
winning streak.

Since 1996, five states California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and Arizona
have passed medical marijuana initiatives. Voters in the District of
Columbia also registered approval.

To date, says Brown, the referendum record on the issue is unbeaten.

In the contest over the ballot-topping abortion measure, both sides have
raised and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Seeking enactment of a prohibition on what proponents describe as ''partial
birth abortion,'' the United for Life Coalition one of several
organizations promoting passage reported expenditures of about $597,000
through Oct. 21.

The Respect Life Educational Foundation listed spending at about $250,000,
virtually the same amount the United for Life Coalition reported receiving
from it earlier this month.

The United for Life Coalition also reported outstanding loans of $200,000
with about $29,000 in cash on hand.

Both groups are sponsored by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland and
spokesman Marc Mutty said Saturday that by the end of the campaign the
proponents of the abortion proposal will have spent about $1 million.

On the other side, the No on 1 Coalition the largest organization opposing
the abortion ballot proposal reported expenditures of more than $961,000
through Oct. 21.

Through that date, the No on 1 Coalition reported having more than $97,000
in cash on hand and loans owed of $80,000.