By Christopher Williams,Staff Writer

AUGUSTA – A Lewiston man “living under a bridge” with a string of criminal convictions to his name was signed up last year as a Maine Senate candidate in a tactic designed to distract Democrats, his campaign treasurer has revealed.

That treasurer, a political operative from Minot who figures prominently in an ongoing state election probe, said she and a fellow political strategist dreamed up the sham candidacy.

The Maine Ethics Commission continues its probe with another public hearing at 9 a.m. today at the Public Utilities Commission office in Augusta.

In testimony at a commission hearing last month, independent Senate candidate Julia St. James said Larlee and Daniel Rogers of Lewiston recruited her as well as Major Isaac Pike, 36, who, St. James said, was “a bum … living under a bridge.”

Pike ran as an independent member of the Fourth Branch Party, a political designation reportedly inspired by pot smoking, according to St. James’ testimony at the hearing.

In a recent interview, Larlee acknowledged that she and Rogers recruited Pike and applied for Clean Election funding, but had no intention of running him as a serious candidate.

“We never intended, ever, for him to run for office,” Larlee said.

Pike, who registered as an independent in May 2004, never received any taxpayer money because he failed to collect the required $5 donations and signatures, state officials said.

Larlee said Pike’s candidacy was intended to divert Democrats’ attention from St. James’ Senate District 14 race. She challenged a Democratic incumbent from Dixfield for that western Maine seat.

Lewiston police say Pike is a known transient who may reside at times in an apartment in Lewiston. “He had many, many police involvements over the years,” said Lewiston police Lt. Michael McGonagle.

Court records show that Pike has a string of convictions – including two for assault and two for carrying a concealed weapon – dating back to 1988.

Ethics commissioners are expected to quiz Larlee and Rogers about their recruitment of Pike, St. James and Sarah Trundy of Minot. Trundy ran as a Clean Election candidate last year from the Green Independent Party for a seat in the Maine House. Larlee was treasurer of Trundy’s campaign; Rogers was a paid political consultant. St. James, who ran as an independent Fourth Branch Party candidate, had been busted for cultivating marijuana.

Some commissioners expressed concern that those who were eligible as Clean Election candidates may have signed up for the sole purpose of tapping into taxpayer money.

Larlee has claimed that St. James and Trundy were serious candidates and that it was St. James who, in fact, approached Larlee about a possible run for office.

Ethics Commission Executive Director Jonathan Wayne said his office verified Pike’s candidacy shortly before today’s hearing, which did not leave the commission enough time to subpoena him if it had desired his testimony.

Larlee and Rogers came up with the idea of filing papers for Pike’s candidacy, Larlee said recently. She said the reason for having him register for the Lewiston Senate district was so Democrats would focus on Pike’s effort to get enough signatures to appear on the ballot there rather and on St. James’ effort to get signatures in District 14.

Rogers also feared Democrats would call on clerks in the Oxford County towns of Senate District 14 to purge their voter lists, thereby reducing St. James’ chances for success at getting enough signatures to qualify as a Clean Election candidate.

Town clerks are required to purge their voter lists every five years, taking off the names of those who no longer live in the town. Those names, if they are on a candidate’s petitions, would be invalid and may mean the candidate would not have the required number to appear on the ballot.

Whether that strategy worked or not, St. James did qualify for public funding. She was given more than $50,000.

Larlee got Pike to sign the necessary papers, naming herself as treasurer, Larlee said. Belinda Gerry, an Auburn city councilor, said she was asked to notarize Pike’s papers, but had no other involvement in his short-lived run for office.

“I was at Florian’s Market and the next thing I knew I was signing his papers,” she said.

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