AUGUSTA – An election watchdog group that zealously scrutinizes campaign finance reports for incidents of noncompliance has been fined more than $1,000 by the state ethics commission.

William C. Hain, executive director of the Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices, said Tuesday that the Dirigo Alliance Political Action Committee was assessed a fine of $1,195 for failing to meet two successive deadlines for filing financial reports with the state.

Although both reports have now been filed by George Christie, the alliance’s executive director, the matter was outstanding when the ethics panel met July 10 for its regular monthly session. At that time, the commission assessed an $85 penalty against the Dirigo Alliance for missing an April quarterly filing deadline and another $1,110 for being late with a 6-day, preprimary report. The second penalty was higher because it was a second offense, according to Hain, and it represented 3 percent of what the alliance raised during the filing period.

Christie, a driving force behind the creation of Maine’s Clean Election Act and a relentless crusader for fairness and equity in the compliance with state campaign finance laws, admitted he was a little “embarrassed” by filing tardy reports with the state.

“We of all people should not be late in filing our reports,” Christie said. “I reported it to our coalition partners and everybody kind of looked around the table and said, ‘we’ve all goofed at times, but don’t do it again.'”

Although staff at the ethics commission contacted the alliance on repeated occasions to remind the group that the reports were due, Christie said the paperwork just kept “falling off my ‘to do’ list.”

The alliance, a coalition of Maine organizations dedicated to helping its members run for elected office, is known for maintaining a close watch on statewide campaign finance reports as well as for backing initiatives that level the playing field to permit those of modest means to run for office.

“We also work on the issue of looking at public subsidies for private enterprise to see whether the taxpayers are getting their money’s worth out of that,” Christie said.

Christie said there was no intentional error or chicanery associated with his group’s late filing. He acknowledged the alliance had been critical of others in the past for not conforming with state campaign finance laws.

“This isn’t a case of where we were trying to cover something up or move money around that we didn’t want people to know about – then we would deserve all of the criticism that anyone would care to level at us,” he said. “I guess the most stinging thing someone could say about us is that we failed to file our report on time.”