BAR HARBOR — A national movement aimed at getting corporate money out of politics has landed on Mount Desert Island.

In all four island towns, petitions have begun circulating in support of changing the United States Constitution to drive big corporate money out of the electoral process.

The petitions urge support of a Constitutional amendment that would ostensibly reverse a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision that granted corporations First Amendment rights to unlimited political spending. The unlimited spending, many say, has led to the formation of super PACs (political action committees) that are now controlling the political process.

“Everybody I talk to says we’ve got to get the money out of politics. Everybody is sick of lobbyists running Washington,” said Russell Snyder, who is heading up petition efforts in Mount Desert. “This is a grassroots thing, and that’s the way it’s got to happen. Then Augusta is going to have to say, ‘We’ve got to listen to this,’ and then Congress is going to have to listen.”

Gary Friedmann of Bar Harbor says that he and several others are working to get at least 200 signatures before approaching the town council on May 1 to request being placed on the agenda later that month.

“The purpose of the signature is to show our town council … that this isn’t just a few people who support this,” he said.

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