Maine gets tougher on the spending for small town ballot measures

Maine campaign finance regulators are starting to investigate violations of a new law passed last year that requires people and groups who pay to influence ballot questions in small towns to disclose their names and addresses.

The first entity that was fined under the new law was a Boothbay region group that opposed a school funding bond. Now, the state ethics commission is investigating a second violation involving anonymous mailers sent to St. George residents opposing a housing proposal.

This new level of enforcement reflects growing attention to the way that political campaigns are funded in small towns. State officials are providing that scrutiny under a law that was passed in response to the recent efforts of Maine’s largest internet provider — Charter Communications — to use big campaign tactics to quash municipal broadband proposals in little communities such as Southport and Readfield.

The new law , sponsored by Democratic State Rep. Ann Matlack of St. George, requires entities that spend more than $5,000 on influencing voters for or against a ballot question in a municipality with a population under 15,000 to disclose their name and address. The entity must also register and file reports with the state ethics commission.

Before the law was passed, disclosure laws for campaign expenditures only applied in municipalities with populations of more than 15,000.

In her testimony for the bill, Matlack said that campaign spending had previously gone undisclosed despite having a big impact on ballot questions in small towns.

“Is it neighbors coming together to express support or opposition? Is it an individual or a corporation with a vested interest in the outcome of the vote? Required disclosures reveal who is behind campaign spending, how much is being raised and spent, and how the money is spent. It helps communities understand who stands to gain or lose,” Matlack said at the time.

While anonymous mailers and signs for local campaigns appear to be uncommon, Jonathan Wayne, the executive director of the Maine ethics commission, said it’s hard to tell exactly how often they’re used because he only hears about them when someone files a formal complaint.

Since its passage in October, there have only been two cases that the Maine ethics commission is aware of that have violated the new law, according to Wayne.

In April, it received a complaint that a group called Citizens for a Bright Future for the Boothbay Region had not registered or filed a report as a group that had raised over $5,000 to influence a ballot question. The group was urging voters in the region to oppose a $30 million bond that would have provided repairs for the local schools.

The ethics commission also found that though the signs the group placed down disclosed the group’s name, it should have also disclosed that it paid for the signs and its address. The group was fined $300.

In May, an anonymous entity sent out flyers to residents in St. George urging residents to vote “no” on a ballot question that would have allowed the town to transfer 18 acres of land to a nonprofit group to build up to seven houses on, in an attempt to ease the region’s housing crisis.

The mailers were sent three days before the election, and residents ultimately rejected the measure .

Matlack, who lives in St. George, filed the complaint with the ethics commission that the mailers may have broken the new law she had sponsored because they did not disclose the name and address of the entity who paid for them.

The Maine ethics commission voted on Wednesday to investigate the situation. It is still unclear  who sent the mailers and whether the entity paid over $5,000 for them.

Matlack said the misleading information on the card could not be rebutted because the flyers were delivered three days before the election, and because there was no way to contact the people who sent it.

The Maine ethics commission urges anyone with information on the anonymous St. George flyers to contact it at 207-287-4179.

Jules Walkup is a Report for America corps member. Additional support for this reporting is provided by BDN readers.