AUGUSTA – Maine state and local candidates are scrambling to meet the requirements of an apparently little-known federal law after Rep. John Baldacci’s failure to do so was reported in Thursday’s edition of Roll Call, a Washington, D.C.-based daily.

“I take responsibility,” said Baldacci, a candidate for governor. “We were exempt from this on my federal [congressional] campaign. We have filed now and will do what we have to on this to meet the law.”

Congress passed the legislation, which Baldacci said he supported, in 2000 to force greater disclosure of campaign finances.

It requires all political organizations that have more than $25,000 a year in contributions or other revenue to register with the Internal Revenue Service and file reports disclosing sources of funds and expenditures. Organizations that must file with the Federal Elections Commission, such as congressional candidates’ campaign committees, are exempt.

The law applies at all levels of government, including state, county and municipal, to candidates who get more than $25,000 in contributions, even if the money comes from Maine’s Clean Election fund.

Two candidates in the state Senate District 27 special election this week each received more than $52,000 under the state public financing law and neither was aware of the federal law.

At 9:42 a.m., shortly after the Roll Call article hit the newsstands Thursday, Baldacci’s campaign registered with the IRS, according to the Internal Revenue Service Political Organization’s filing Web site. Less than 45 minutes later, the campaign committee for Republican gubernatorial candidate Peter Cianchette was registered. Independent candidate David Flanagan’s committee filed at 3:26 p.m. None of the other gubernatorial candidates has raised enough money yet to trigger the requirement.

Several Maine-based political action committees, such as the Maine Bank PAC and the Maine Dental PAC, registered in August 2000.

The law has stiff penalties. Failure to register and file reports can result in a fine of up to 35 percent of the funds raised by the committee. In Baldacci’s case, that could mean as much as $175,000 of the $500,000 he has raised so far in his campaign.

But observers at the national level doubt the IRS will levy fines. Sheila Krumholz, research director at the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based election reform group, said IRS officials have said privately they want compliance, not the litigation that surely would result if penalties were imposed.

“From what I have heard, they are not going to be fined,” she said.

Calls to both national and regional media offices of the IRS were not returned.

While the law was aimed at requiring disclosure of what were called “stealth” political action committees in federal elections, it cast a broad net to make sure federal candidates did not set up state committees to avoid disclosure, Krumholz said.

“Not all states have strong disclosure laws, not by a long shot,” she said. “So if you want to make sure a senator or representative is not hiding a PAC by organizing it at the state level, you have to require they all register.”

Maine political party officials are not happy with the additional paperwork. Democratic Party chairwoman Gwethalyn Philips said while the law was well-intentioned, it duplicates state law that already requires detailed disclosure for state candidates.

“They [candidates] are already filing reports with the [state] Ethics Commission,” she said. “I hope Congress changes this. It is very burdensome.”

Dwayne Bickford, executive director of the Maine Republican Party, agreed with Philips. He said when candidates use the public financing offered under the Clean Elections Act, the amount of paperwork and reporting is so onerous it discourages people from running for office.

“This is the first I have heard about this,” he said. “But we will work to help make sure our candidates meet the law. I don’t see why we need another set of reports; they already file at the state level.”

In fact, two legislative candidates already have triggered the law. Republican Sally Vamvakias and independent Jack Dawson, candidates in the state Senate District 27 special election held this week, each received more than $52,000 under the state public financing law. Neither has filed, but Bickford said he would contact Vamvakias about the law “soon.”

William Hain, executive director of the Maine Commission on Ethics and Elections Practices, said the IRS had asked for state help in publicizing the law after it was passed in the summer of 2000.

“We sent a letter [to the IRS] saying we really could not afford to send out a separate mailing on this,” he said. “We have over a thousand candidates and committee filings. We did say we would put a notice about it on our Web site.”

That letter was sent last August, along with letters to the leaders of the state Republican, Democratic and Green Independent parties. But Hain said the federal reporting law had not generated a single call, letter or inquiry from any state group until Thursday.