Fines for Clean Election violations probed

AUGUSTA – Nine candidates in November’s legislative elections have been put on notice they face fines ranging from $385 to nearly $32,000 for allegedly violating provisions of Maine’s new Clean Elections law.

In all nine instances, the penalties are proposed for candidates who accepted private contributions in running against publicly funded opponents.

William Hain, executive director of the state Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices, said this week there was no evidence that the alleged violations reflected intentional efforts to wrongfully evade provisions of the Clean Elections system.

“There was no skullduggery here,” he said.

Nonetheless, the size of some of the proposed fines – $31,922 in one case, $18,204 in a second – has left even campaign finance overseers suggesting changes in the law might be warranted.

Up to now, the state’s optional system of public financing for political campaigns has been favorably received by many participants and observers.

But the severity of the potential penalties, which must still be ruled on by the ethics commission, has aroused antagonism within the Legislature.

Sen. Neria Douglass, the Auburn Democrat who serves as co-chairman of the Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee, said Thursday she expected some attempt by lawmakers to address what she described as “very high fines unrelated to the offense, way out of line with the errors that were committed.”

At issue are cases involving allegedly late filings of certain campaign finance statements known as “accelerated reports” that effectively trigger additional public funds for Clean Election candidates who could otherwise be outspent by their traditionally funded opponents.

As approved by Maine voters in a 1996 referendum, candidates financed through the Clean Election system can expect to receive three-quarters of the average amount spent by candidates for the same office in the previous two elections.

Candidates who forgo private contributions and accept public funding may get up to twice as much extra to keep pace with privately funded opponents.

In one case under review, Republican Rep. Ronald Collins of Wells faces a fine of nearly $32,000 over the reporting of an aggregate amount of $2,282.

Similarly, a penalty of more than $18,000 is proposed for Democratic Rep. Charles LaVerdiere of Wilton for reporting an amount of $246.

Earlier this month, Hain wrote to the Legal and Veterans Affairs Committee to formally bring the pending penalties to the panel’s attention.

In his April 18 letter addressing the pending cases, Hain said the penalty provision in the Clean Election law covering matching fund violations “yields results that arguably are disproportionate to the gravity of the offending amounts involved.”

Asserting that the commission had concluded it had virtually no discretion in the matter, Hain told the committee he had been directed to inquire whether lawmakers “might consider amending the statute … to give the commission the discretion they exercise in all other penalty cases.”