AUGUSTA – Maine’s state ethics commission cleared the way Wednesday for Green Independent gubernatorial candidate Jonathan Carter to receive public financing for his Blaine House campaign.

Voting 4-0, the panel agreed to accept a staff recommendation that treats Carter’s handling of a pollster’s memorandum that he used in a solicitation of campaign support as no more than a minor infraction under Clean Elections Act provisions.

“If Mr. Carter failed to understand the technical requirements of the seed money restrictions when he received and utilized this memorandum in the summer of 2001, that failure appears to have been unintentional on his part,” the unanimous commission statement said.

Carter has denied violating the law and said he made use of the memorandum before he actually became a candidate for governor.

The Maine Democratic Party had complained about Carter’s handling of the memorandum, saying it amounted to acceptance of an improper campaign contribution and should disqualify him for public campaign financing.

Carter, who could be eligible for about $900,000 in taxpayer money for his campaign, blasted the complaint after Wednesday’s commission ruling as a “Democratic Party witch hunt.”

Carter said that “our acceptance of the arrangement” spelled out by the commission came “simply so we can get on with the campaign.”

The Republican president of the state Senate, Richard Bennett of Norway, wrote to the commission this week urging the panel to reject what he called a “baseless” Democratic complaint.

Carter was seeking so-called seed money to enable him to qualify for public financing when he sent out a fund-raising letter last year. He also circulated a consultant’s analysis highlighting the potential strengths of his candidacy.

The Democratic Party subsequently suggested that Carter’s use of the consultant’s analysis posed “a potential violation” of the Clean Elections Act and state campaign finance disclosure law.

Carter told the ethics panel he believed a consultant’s analysis based on old polling data had little financial value and that the material originally had been packaged for him to help him decide whether to make a second Blaine House race.

Carter twice has been involved in multicandidate elections that saw Democratic entrants lose out.

In the 1992 general election for the 2nd Congressional District seat, he ran as a Green candidate and took 9 percent as Republican incumbent Olympia Snowe turned back Democrat Patrick McGowan’s second challenge by 49 percent to 42 percent.

In 1994, Carter finished fourth in a four-way gubernatorial contest won by independent Angus King, who edged former Democratic Gov. Joseph Brennan by 35 percent to 34 percent.

Last Friday, Republican Jim Libby became the first Maine candidate for governor to win certification for public financing of his campaign.

For his primary election contest against Peter Cianchette, Libby stands to receive up to $314,139.