Ethics officials to probe flyers opposing midcoast housing proposal

The Maine ethics commission agreed Wednesday morning to investigate whether anonymous flyers that urged St. George residents to oppose a housing proposal on the local ballot in May violated campaign finance laws.

Voters narrowly rejected the measure, which would have given 18 acres of town-owned land to the nonprofit St. George Community Development Corp. to build up to seven new homes, as part of a larger push to develop more housing in the region.

Several days before the vote, flyers were mailed throughout the town urging residents to vote “no” on the project. The flyers do not give any information as to who mailed or paid for them.

Rep. Ann Matlack, a Democrat from St. George, requested the commission to investigate whether the mailers should have stated who paid for them, and whether the sender should have filed information with the state.

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 investigation will attempt to determine if the senders violated a state law that requires people who are advocating for or against a ballot question to disclose their name and address when they pay more than $500 for communications. The law also requires individuals or groups that spend more than $5,000 on influencing ballot questions to register with the commission.

However, the commission does not know how many mailers were sent or how much the distributors paid for them.

Other midcoast elections have faced political mailings that have come under scrutiny from the Maine ethics commission. The panel recently found at a May 29 meeting that a Boothbay group opposing a measure to fund a new school building was late in registering with the commission, leading to $600 in fines.

Anyone with information about the mailers sent to St. George residents can share it with the Maine ethics commission by calling 207-287-4179.