Republican gubernatorial candidate Jim Libby announced his withdrawal from the race on Thursday hours after Maine’s Ethics Commission found multiple issues — including potential fraud — with his application for public campaign financing.
Candidates for governor hoping to receive public financing need to collect $5 contributions from at least 3,200 registered voters in order to qualify for Maine’s “Clean Elections” program. But staff with the Maine Ethics Commission invalidated or raised questions about more than 1,000 contributions, leaving him more than 300 short of the minimum.
The commission also alleges a donation collector — identified only as “Collector 1” — engaged in fraud by falsely stating that he had received $5 donations when, in fact, at least 15 supposed donors told commission staff that they did not give any money.
“As of the date of this determination, the commission staff cannot state the exact number of fraudulent QCs (qualifying contributions) claimed by Collector 1,” reads the commission’s report. “As noted above, there could be dozens or in excess of 100, because Collector 1 claimed to have collected a large number of QCs. The commission staff may conduct additional investigation of this issue for purposes of enforcement proceedings.”
Commission staff also found possible evidence of falsified signatures by the individual collecting the $5 qualifying contributions. While the commission said it found no evidence that Libby authorized any fraudulent activity, it faulted him for not appointing a “compliance director” to oversee the qualifying contribution process.
Libby, a state senator from Standish and a professor at Thomas College, said Thursday in an interview that he disagrees with those allegations.
“All of the people who worked for me were volunteers,” Libby said. “They didn’t have any incentive to do that.”
But without clean elections funding, Libby said he doesn’t see a viable path forward for the campaign.
“I couldn’t really get enough help, I think, to get the $5 contributions that we needed,” he said. “I don’t disagree with the Ethics Commission coming to the conclusion that there was not enough of them.”
Approved by voters 30 years ago, Maine’s clean elections program was touted as a way to reduce the influence of money in politics. Participating candidates receive public financing but agree to forgo receiving private donations. The 30-year-old program is popular with legislative candidates from both sides of the aisle but has drawn far fewer participating gubernatorial candidates.
Libby was the only “clean elections” candidate among the eight Republicans who have already qualified for the GOP primary ballot. All five of the Democrats on the June 9 primary ballot are also running traditionally financed campaigns rather than seeking public campaign financing.
The candidates are required to collect at least 3,200 qualifying contributions of $5 in order to “demonstrate a strong basis of public support,” said Ethics Commission executive director Jonathan Wayne. Had he qualified, Libby could have received an initial payment of more than $530,000 for the primary.
But Wayne said that documenting the qualifying contributions “requires a large amount of administrative work.” That includes having contributors complete up to two forms and requirements that the campaigns enter contributors’ names into an online voter registration verification system or have local clerks verify them.
Ethics commission staff said nearly 200 of the contributors to Libby’s campaign weren’t registered to vote and nearly 500 hadn’t been verified by a local clerk. There were also nearly 200 duplicates and numerous examples of misspelled names or other errors “that could have been avoided had greater care been taken when collecting and documenting QCs,” staff wrote.
The commission’s report denying Libby’s request for funding also pointed out that his campaign lacked a required “compliance director” for months whose job is to ensure contribution collectors know the rules and are following all proper steps.
“Qualifying as a candidate for governor requires a high degree of organization,” Wayne said in a statement. “Because public funds are at stake, the Ethics Commission actively looks for fraud in the qualifying process. This includes when someone else signs the contributor’s names on the Commission’s forms. If we see indications of fraud, we investigate. If we find fraud, candidates will be ineligible for Maine Clean Election Act funding.
Libby said he does not plan to appeal the commission’s denial of his request for public campaign financing.