The executive director of Maine Leads testified he attempted to emulate the “political left” when he raised more than $419,000 from national nonprofit organizations and used more than half to help fund citizen initiatives in 2007 and 2008.
Roy Lenardson appeared before the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices Sept. 8 to answer complaints Maine Leads violated state election law by failing to register as a Political Action Committee (PAC) in 2007.
The hearing continues Thurs., Oct. 1, approximately a month before citizens’ initiatives funded by Maine Leads will appear as Question 2 and Question 4 on a statewide referendum.
Deborah Hutton, a former state representative from Bowdoinham, filed the complaint with the commission that prompted investigation and the hearing.
Hutton believes Maine Leads violated Maine law 21-A M.S.R.A. § 1052(5)(A)(4), which applies to organizations with a “purpose advocating the passage or defeat of a ballot question and that solicits funds from members or nonmembers and spends more than $1500 in a calendar year to initiate, advance, promote, defeat or influence in any way a… referendum or initiated petition, including the collection of signatures for a direct initiative…”
Given Maine Leads’ Nov. 2007 donations of $25,000 to each to three PACs working to lower taxes, promote tax reform, and reform healthcare, Hutton contends Maine Leads should be required to register as a PAC and disclose funding sources.
According to Hutton, in addition to the $25,000 from Maine Leads, The Road to a Cleaner Maine PAC generated just $72 from additional sources.
With signatures filed with the Maine Secretary of State Nov. 3, 2008, the citizen initiative supported by the Maine Leads-funded PAC will appear as Question 2 on the Nov. 3 ballot.
Citizens for a Prosperous Maine PAC generated $16,554 in contributions in addition to the $25,000 donated by Maine Leads. That initiative will appear as Question 4.
Maine Leads garnered $419,000 from three national foundations in 2007 and 2008, Lenardson testified Sept. 8. Of that amount, some $235,000 helped Maine Leads fund three citizen initiatives, two of which will appear on the referendum.
Attempts to bankroll the fledgling nonprofit took Lenardson outside of Maine in 2006 and 2007, he testified, when he hoped to gain at least $1.2 million to fund a three-year initiative to help organize Maine conservatives around common goals.
“I kind of made it up and blurted out everything that came to mind and they liked it,” he said of his six-page funding proposal and conversations with individuals. “I had something to sell and people were buying.”
The proposal submitted by Lenardson to one potential donor, the National Tax Limitation Committee, indicated Maine Leads would perform grassroots organizing, initiate ballot development and signature collection strategies, and assist in PAC development, among other goals.
During testimony, Lenardson did not disclose the foundations that donated to Maine Leads. He indicated one foundation acted as the lead grantor and then solicited donations from two other foundations on behalf of Maine Leads.
Beyond admitting to sending one copy of his proposal to the National Tax Limitation Committee, Lenardson did not indicate what, if any, formal communication Maine Leads had with potential funding sources.
His only recollection, other than receiving donations, was of sending handwritten thank-you notes to the funders.
Jonathan Wayne, executive director of the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices, asked Lenardson if the national foundation directors would have known the money would be used on citizen initiatives.
“Yes, I do recall having those conversations,” Lenardson testified.
In his proposal to national foundations, Lenardson wrote, “Maine has become a poster child for what you can accomplish on the left with a well-funded and long-term strategic plan.”
Gathering petition signatures did not figure into Lenardson’s long-term view, he said during testimony.
Somewhere along the way, however, Lenardson’s long-term plans were supplanted by the need to collect enough signatures to place tax reform initiatives to a statewide referendum.
Maine Leads paid Pioneer Group $65,000 to help collect signatures after donating $25,000 to each of three PACs working to reform taxes in November 2007.
Pioneer Group was a consulting firm created by Trevor Bragdon, who had been employed by Maine Leads. During testimony Lenardson was unable to recall the dates of Bragdon’s employment with Maine Leads.
“Is there any reason Maine Leads did not contribute the $65,000 to the PACs?” Wayne asked during the hearing.
“I viewed the signature gathering as a whole other process,” Lenardson testified.
Maine Leads and Pioneer Group originally envisioned a one-day signature-gathering effort led largely by volunteers, Lenardson testified.
The effort failed to secure sufficient signatures in November 2007 and evolved into a months-long effort to collect enough signatures to place the initiatives on the November 2009 ballot.
The initial $65,000 paid by Maine Leads to Pioneer Group in November 2007 swelled by an additional $95,500 throughout the remainder of 2007 through August 2008.
In all, Maine Leads contributed some $235,000 toward citizen initiatives in 2007 and 2008, Wayne confirmed during testimony.
Despite the financial outlay to support signature-gathering efforts, Lenardson testified the intent of Maine Leads was not to build coalitions among conservative groups, but focus on individual referenda.
During testimony, Lenardson said Maine Leads was a non-profit organization conceived November 2006, following losses for conservatives through the defeat of a taxpayers’ bill of rights.
“It was me tired of every two years listening to my side complain,” he said of the decision to form the nonprofit.
Lenardson was questioned by Wayne, who inquired why Lenardson registered with the ethics commission as the principal officer of The Road to a Cleaner Maine PAC on Aug. 21, 2007, yet failed to create PACs for other efforts funded by Maine Leads.
During testimony, commission staff directed Lenardson to his signature on both a PAC registered with the commission and an application for a citizen initiative to reduce excise taxes filed with the Secretary of State Aug. 20, 2007.
Lenardson could not confirm who drafted the language for the citizen initiative and further testified Maine Leads might not have existed at the time The Road to a Cleaner Maine PAC was formed.
Lenardson reiterated his intention in forming Maine Leads was to build a groundswell of conservative groups and to organize local groups.
Maine Leads was formed some time in 2007 and officers listed on its 2008 tax return include Michael Duddy of Portland, Neal Freeman of Amelia Island, Florida, Kent Lassman of Washington, D.C., and Lenardson, who lived in Scarborough in 2007.
He testified he was displeased by the amount of revenue used to fund Pioneer Group’s signature-gathering that led to referenda on the November 2009 ballot. Lenardson further testified he wished he had anticipated how much would be spent funding signature-gathering efforts.
“Personally, the referendum, for me, is an annoyance and a time suck,” Lenardson testified.
By the close of 2008 Maine Leads had exhausted its three national grants and reported an operating loss of $24,399.
The commission requested copies of the nonprofit’s annual budget and is scheduled to resume its hearing Oct. 1.
