GOP lawyer: $5,000 fine for Dems is just

AUGUSTA – Suggesting the Maine Democratic Party appears to be engaging in a recurring pattern of noncompliance with state campaign finance laws, a Republican lawyer said Tuesday that Democrats will be hard-pressed to explain why they shouldn’t be subjected to the maximum penalty for failing to report campaign expenditures.

“This was a fairly significant amount of money and they knew that they had spent it, so this is hardly a minor oversight,” said Dan Billings, a Waterville attorney and Republican activist.

Billings will represent Roy Lenardson, a political consultant who works with Republicans and is the campaign manager for TaxpayerBillofRights.com. when the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices meets today to take up its case against the Democrats along with several other alleged violations that have been in the headlines recently.

Lenardson alerted the ethics panel to the absence of two major expenditures by the Maine Democratic Party after the close of the most recent campaign finance reporting period.

Democratic lawyers are not contesting the nondisclosure of more than $3,200 in mailings for the re-election campaigns of Rep. Walter Ash, D-Belfast, and Sen. Lynn Bromley, D-South Portland. The expenditures were contracted in June and mailed on July 20 and July 14, but were not reported for the campaign finance report filing period that ended July 25.

Responding to the commission’s inquiries, Maine Democratic Party lawyer Michael K. Mahoney said there was no mistaking the fact that the party had erroneously omitted the Ash and Bromley mailings from its report.

“The omissions were the result of a communications lapse within the party,” Mahoney wrote in a letter to the commission, adding the party had “taken steps to minimize the risk of this sort of error repeating itself.”

The commission staff concluded the party’s nondisclosure was 22 days overdue and recommended a fine of $5,000 for the violation. Efforts to reach Maine Democratic Party officials for further comment on the case Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Billings maintained the party’s explanation of a “communications lapse” was identical to the excuse given two years ago when the state Democratic organization was fined for failing to report an expenditure of funds in a Belfast House race resulting in the late release of matching funds under the Maine Clean Elections Act to the GOP candidate.

“You know, we’re not talking about some county committee that might be relying entirely on volunteers who are in no way as familiar with their obligations under the law as the Maine Democratic Party,” he said. “So, I think the commission staff recommendation for a penalty is justified.”

Other cases on the commission’s agenda today include:

. A complaint against publicly funded independent gubernatorial candidate Barbara Merrill of Appleton. John Michael of Auburn, another independent candidate for governor, claims the Merrill campaign erred when it filed a campaign finance report stating it had paid two employees for work performed while Merrill was attempting to qualify for the ballot.

. A complaint filed by Merrill claiming the Maine Democratic Party had authorized a push poll – a poll designed to change a respondent’s opinion of a candidate by imparting negative erroneous information about the candidate. Merrill brought the complaint against the party after hearing that a poll was being conducted that negatively mischaracterized her policy positions and reputation.

. A complaint filed by the Maine Democratic Party against Merrill and Republican gubernatorial candidate Chandler Woodcock that claimed both had acted to manipulate the Maine Clean Elections law when they contributed $5 to each other’s campaigns. Democratic leaders argued the act amounted to a quid pro quo – an agreement barred under Maine law.