By Christopher Williams,Staff Writer

AUGUSTA – A state agency has summoned Lewiston political figures Daniel Rogers and Stavros Mendros to testify at an ongoing investigation into the possible misuse of public money in two recent legislative campaigns.

Two women who sought office last year have been unable to fully account for nearly $40,000 of taxpayers’ money. An Oct. 12 hearing into the matter turned bizarre when witnesses referred to drug use, drunkenness and supernatural powers.

Rogers, 41, was a paid political operative for the two campaigns last year.

Some state officials have questioned whether the women were serious candidates or simply recruited as a means to gain access to money from the till of Maine’s Clean Election Act.

Julia St. James of Hartford said Rogers and another campaign worker, who served as treasurer, talked her into running for Maine Senate District 12 in 2004. She paid him more than $11,000 – about one-fifth of her her total budget – as her campaign manager.

Sarah Trundy of Minot ran for state representative. She paid Rogers $1,000 – nearly one-quarter of her budget – to serve as campaign consultant.

The Commission on Governmental Ethics and Elections Practices subpoenaed Rogers to testify at a Nov. 9 hearing. It had hoped to question Rogers at its Oct. 12 hearing about the two campaigns but was unable to locate him.

Two days after that hearing, Rogers picked up his subpoena at the Lewiston Police Department, commission officials said. At the same time, police found an outstanding warrant for unpaid fines on an earlier charge of negotiating a worthless instrument (or writing a bad check). Rogers was arrested and taken to Androscoggin County Jail, where he was booked, then released. He was convicted last year on a similar count, according to the Androscoggin County district attorney’s office.

Mendros, a Lewiston city councilor and former state representative, was subpoenaed to explain his role in an effort by St. James’ campaign to solicit from him a Republican Party voter list.

St. James said Rogers and another campaign worker talked her into dating Mendros with the aim of getting the list.

Mendros said Thursday he never supplied her campaign with any voter list. The only lists he possessed were a Lewiston voter list and one left over from his congressional primary in 2002, he said.

The list in question is found on a members-only Republican Party Web site. Rogers supplied St. James with a password to the site so she could download the mailing list, she told the commission.

Mendros said he was given a password to gain access to the site months after his “fake date” with St. James and never passed along the information to her.

Jonathan Wayne, executive director at the commission, said he hoped to “test the veracity” of St. James’ testimony at the Nov. 9 hearing.

Mendros and Rogers worked together on political campaigns and are friends, Mendros said. Rogers could not be reached for comment Thursday. Mendros said he was out of state on business. The phone number listed on the jail’s booking sheet for Rogers rings at Mendros’ apartment; the address found on the sheet is that of Mendros’ apartment.

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