A political action committee (PAC) was fined $10,000 Monday for what its CEO called an “administrative mistake,” marking the second time this year that the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices has assessed the maximum penalty allowed by law.
Cindy Butts, chief executive officer for the Maine Association of Realtors PAC, did not dispute that her organization filed expenditure reports for two election-season mailings 20 days late.
“We’ve followed the rules for the last 30 years and this is our first violation,” Butts told the commission. “This was caused by an administrative mistake. This was not intentional.”
The $10,000 fine is in addition to an initial “routine” fine of $1231.20 levied against the Maine Association of Realtors for the same offense.
At issue are two Oct. 10 mailings by the PAC to benefit Senate candidates Lois Snowe-Mello of Poland, who lost to Deborah Simpson of Auburn by 108 votes in the District 15 race; and Christopher Rector of Thomaston, who beat David Miramant of Camden by 1948 votes in the District 22 race.
The total cost of the two mailings was $6155.79. Because that amount is more than $250, it requires a report to the ethics commission within 24 hours, according to the Maine Clean Election Act. It took 20 days for the PAC to realize its error and report it on Oct. 31.
Butts said outside Monday’s meeting, she noticed the problem after a newspaper report didn’t list her organization in a list of contributions to candidates. She said the PAC can pay the fine and hopes to avoid this mistake in the future.
“I deeply regret it,” she said. “We do respect the political process.”
Commission member Francis Marsano and others argued that the violation should trigger a “substantial penalty” no matter what caused it because there is no way to determine if the delay in funds to Simpson and Miramant damaged their campaigns. Commissioner Edward Youngblood agreed.
“There’s nothing more important than making sure we have a system that ensures (clean election candidates) get assistance,” he said.
The commission voted 3-0, with Michael Friedman absent and Walter McKee abstaining, to assess the $10,000 penalty. That money will be paid into the Maine Clean Election Fund to be used in future elections.
This isn’t the first time such a stiff penalty has been imposed.
In November, the commission levied a $10,000 penalty against the Fed Up With Taxes PAC, which advocated a question on the November ballot that would have instituted new taxes to fund the Dirigo Health program.
In other business on Monday, the commission gave unanimous approval to tripling the cap for seed money collected by MCEA gubernatorial candidates to $150,000.
The new cap is designed to allow clean election candidates for governor the resources to wage relevant campaigns prior to the dispersal of state funding in April of an election year. The commission’s approval is subject to enactment by the Legislature.
The commission also discussed a range of changes to laws within its jurisdiction – which executive director Jonathan Wayne said were mostly technical in nature – and decided to return to those issues at its next meeting after gathering opinions from other interested parties.
The commission’s next scheduled meeting is Jan. 29.
(Statehouse News Service)