By Bonnie Washuk,Staff Writer

AUGUSTA – A state commission will hold a hearing Wednesday probing how two former State House candidates spent taxpayer money.

The Commission on Governmental Ethics and Elections Practices will examine the use of Clean Election money given to Julia St. James of 37 Mountain View Drive in Hartford and Sarah Trundy of 136 East Oxford Road in Minot for their 2004 campaigns.

St. James ran as a Fourth Branch Party candidate against Sen. Bruce Bryant, D-Dixfield.

Trundy ran as a Green candidate against Rep. Joan Bryant-Deschenes, R-Turner.

St. James and Trundy each lost her race.

According to information posted on the ethics commission agenda, Trundy, St. James and others have been served with subpoenas mandating they appear at the Oct. 12 hearing in Augusta.

For her Senate campaign, St. James was given more than $50,000 in Clean Election funds. According to state records, she returned about $13,752, but failed to submit invoices or receipts showing how much of the remaining $36,500 was spent.

For instance, St. James paid Dan Rogers of Auburn more than $11,000 from Clean Election funds, but failed to submit any invoices showing what the payment to Rogers was for, records indicate. She also provided few receipts for more than $1,000 in reported travel expenses, according to commission records.

In another example, she provided insufficient receipts to show how she spent $4,500 in cash withdrawn from her campaign on Oct. 29, 2004, according to the commission.

Ethics office staff said records indicate the St. James campaign purchased no campaign advertising, and sent out only one mailer to voters. The campaign did purchase 250 signs, some refrigerator magnets, pens and nail files, and made roughly 50 homemade signs, documents show.

St. James declined to comment Monday.

Trundy received $4,488 for her campaign, and spent $4,487, including $1,000 paid to Dan Rogers.

State documents show that Trundy has not responded to state attempts asking her to discuss the campaign expenses. The ethics staff is seeking to determine whether all expenses were campaign-related, documents show.

Jessie Larlee of 307 Center Minot Hill Road in Minot was also issued a subpoena to appear at Wednesday’s hearing.

Documents show Larlee was the treasurer for St. James and Trundy. She has been ordered to bring with her all invoices, reports, records and documents from the campaigns.

Efforts by authorities to find and subpoena Rogers were not successful, documents show. Each campaign hired Rogers as a political consultant. The state wants Rogers to come in and bring invoices, reports and records relating to his work for both campaigns.

Attempts to reach Trundy, Larlee and Rogers were unsuccessful.

In a candidate profile published Oct. 24, 2004, in the Sun Journal, St. James listed her occupation as owner of a small commercial greenhouse. In February of 2004 she was arrested on marijuana trafficking charges. In December she pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of marijuana cultivation and was given a six-month jail sentence, which was suspended.

Trundy did not respond to repeated requests in 2004 from the Sun Journal for information for a candidate profile.

The commission will begin meeting at 9 a.m. at 242 State St., Augusta.