Maine Ethics Commission fines Bobby Charles $22k for campaign finance violations

The Maine Ethics Commission on Monday fined Republican gubernatorial candidate Bobby Charles more than $22,000 for violating state campaign finance laws.

The Charles campaign accepted more than $45,300 from dozens of individual donors who exceeded the $2,075 limit on individual campaign contributions, the commission unanimously agreed. The Charles campaign did not dispute the findings, but opposed the fine, repeatedly stressing its cooperation with the commission to return the excessive amount to donors. 

“I’m understanding that every contribution over the limit was returned as of this date,” said Commissioner Sarah LeClaire, a Democrat from Woodland. “I don’t think that that’s the salient issue for us. The salient issue was the acceptance and the failure to report.”

The commissioners pointed out that Charles’ campaign cooperation came after the Maine Democratic Party filed a complaint in early October detailing the over-the-limit contributions. Charles’ campaign Treasurer Bill Riley said that he spotted the excess amounts in reports that were uploaded by a national consultant the team hired, but did not explain why the campaign still accepted them. 

A campaign accepting dozens of over-the-limit contributions is a relatively rare occurrence. In a memo last Thursday, Executive Director Jonathan Wayne wrote that during the commission’s compliance reviews, staff “sometimes finds a gubernatorial candidate has accepted a few (over-the-limit) contributions, but current staff cannot recall finding a candidate campaign accepted anywhere near 36 (over-the-limit)  contributions during a report period.”

Given the unique circumstances, the five commissioners discussed Monday what precedent they would set by fining the Republican nominee’s campaign, and how much that fine should be. 

Attorney Brittany Walker Hausle with the national conservative law firm Lex Politica, who represented Charles, asked the commission for more time and to waive the fee, initially proposing a final determination after the Nov. 3 election. A majority of the commissioners denied that extension, saying the campaign had known for weeks about a potential fine.

Eventually, Commissioner Jill Goldthwait, an independent from Bar Harbor, proposed a 50% fine. The memo from Wayne last week had a suggested minimum of $11,329, which represents 25% of the total overage the Republican nominee accepted. The fine amount does not reflect the more than $4,500 in overages the campaign accepted due to processing fees for online contributions.

Wayne said in the meeting Monday that he proposed that amount as a floor because “I thought a message should be sent to all candidates as sort of general deterrence.”

Four out of five commissioners voted in favor of the 50% fine, which amounts to more than $22,000.

Attorney Kate Knox with Portland law firm Bernstein Shur, who represented the Maine Democratic Party, said the fine “is the cleanest message to voters: This happened; they were fined this much money; they did something wrong.” 

Charles’ campaign called the payments an “administrative error.”

“As soon as we learned of it, we worked in good faith with the commission’s staff, returned the excess contributions and corrected our reports,” said campaign manager Dale Crafts Jr. 

“We would have preferred a different outcome, but we respect the commission’s process,” he added.

The fine does not consider over-the-limit payments in the most recent campaign finance report filed Friday, which commission staff will review and determine whether to report back to the panel at its mid-November meeting, Wayne told Maine Morning Star Monday afternoon.

Under the commission’s rules, staff is obliged to bring “substantial violations” to the attention of the commissioners at a public meeting for possible action, Wayne said. 

Maine Democrats held a press conference following the meeting to highlight what they described as a pattern of misleading voters. State Rep. Marc Malon (D-Biddeford), who is on the Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee, said it is rare for the commissioners to increase the recommended fine. 

The hefty fine is “indicative of the seriousness of the offense,” Malon said. “This episode is part of a broader pattern of behavior from Bobby Charles. This is a guy who has proven himself to be shameless, willing to say or do anything to get power.”

Malon and Joann Bautista, former Deputy Secretary of State, contrasted Charles’ with Hannah Pingree’s campaign, adding that the Democratic nominee has been “reliably doing the careful work of government.”

“When I think about who I want holding the state’s checkbook and upholding the laws of our state, that’s who I trust,” she said.