By David Farmer,Staff Writer

AUGUSTA – The state ethics commission staff has denied gubernatorial candidate John Michael’s application to qualify for public financing of his campaign, citing a pattern of apparent fraud and other deficiencies.

Michael was seeking certification as a Maine Clean Election Act candidate, which could have earned him as much as $1.2 million to finance his run for the Blaine House.

The staff’s letter to Michael, made public Friday, identified numerous problems with his efforts, not the least of which included contributions made improperly in someone else’s name.

To qualify for public financing, a gubernatorial candidate must submit at least 2,500 $5 contributions to the Maine Clean Election fund. During what the letter calls a standard review of contributors, investigators found that more than 8 percent of those who were contacted said they had not made the donations.

“The very first person we called said she didn’t make a contribution,” said Paul Lavin, assistant director for the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices.

Out of 218 people who were interviewed, 18 said that they did not make the contributions attributed to them. The specific responses provided by the 18, the letter said, suggests a pattern of fraud in obtaining qualifying contributions.

Michael, a former state representative who lives in Auburn, has seven days to appeal the decision. Once his response is received, a hearing before the appointed members of the commission will be scheduled within five days unless Michael requests more time to prepare.

The commission has three days from the hearing to issue a ruling. That decision can be appealed to Superior Court.

According to Lavin, the burden of proof during the hearing is on Michael to show that the findings of the commission staff are incorrect.

Michael strongly denied any fraud in the way his qualifying contributions were collected, countering with strong allegations of his own about the ethics commission staff.

“I don’t believe any of the contributions were collected inappropriately,” Michael said by phone Friday. “The only fraud here is the ethics commission, itself, whose job, from their point of view, is to make sure only Democrats and liberals remain in power.”

Although he said that he and his attorney had just received the commission’s finding, he suspects the matter will end up in court.

“The commission has gone to an unprecedented effort in an extremely aggressive way to make sure I don’t run. … We’ve received reports that they were harassing and intimidating people into saying what they wanted.”

According to Lavin, the ethics commission made similar inquiries about contributions to all of the gubernatorial candidates seeking public financing this year.

The initial inquiry into Michael’s contributors led them to other people “who stated that they did not make a qualifying contribution with their own personal funds, were not asked to make a contribution, and were told that the purpose of signing the form was to get you on the ballot without any mention of the Maine Clean Election Act,” the letter said.

Michael’s problems might not end with the denial of public money for his campaign and the appeals process. Depending on his response, the ethics commission staff could investigate further, or the investigation could be turned over to the attorney general for possible criminal prosecution.

A decision won’t be made until after Michael appears before the commission, Lavin said.

According to the Maine Clean Election Act, each violation of the law could result in a fine of no more than $10,000 and criminal prosecution. As an example of what could happen, in June, Peter Throumoulos, a Republican from Old Orchard Beach, was indicted on charges that he forged signatures on money orders to qualify for public financing of his campaign for the state Senate in 2004 and again this year. That case is being prosecuted by the attorney general’s office.

The commission also cited a number of other shortcomings with Michael’s effort to qualify as a clean election candidate.

Even without the problems with possible fraud and Michael being a minute late with some materials on June 16, his campaign still would not have qualified, Lavin said.

According to the letter, Michael submitted 2,690 qualifying contributions, but, at most, only 1,944 were valid. Of the 746 contributions that the commission ruled invalid, 183 were made by people who aren’t registered to vote at the address provided. The others were rejected, among other reasons, because the campaign did not provide all the necessary information with the contribution, or had missed deadlines for submitting required paperwork.

“One of the things, for me, that I found particularly remarkable was the campaign was submitting original records beyond the June 2 deadline,” Lavin said. “The campaign was in total disregard of what the statute clearly says.”

Michael called the idea that he was late with anything ridiculous, and said that he met all the statutory deadlines and only missed dates established in rules and regulations set by the commission.

“I can’t believe they’re trying to disqualify so many of our people,” Michael said. “They have a right to participate in this process.”

The actual language of the law sets the end of the qualifying period at 5 p.m., June 2.

Eric Johnson, a spokesman for Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, praised the ethics commission for the work it has done this year.

“The ethics commission staff is doing its job well by protecting the integrity of the process,” Johnson said. “The requirement of 2,500 small contributions is a viability test to ensure that public dollars go only to candidates with demonstrated support. The ethics commission is enforcing the rules in the public’s interest.”

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