By David Farmer,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – When gubernatorial candidate John Michael learned that the state’s ethics commission had denied his efforts to qualify for as much as $1.2 million in public financing for his campaign, he struck back.

Michael questioned the integrity of the commission’s staff, defended his campaign and leveled his own allegations, which included claims of intimidation and harassment.

An independent investigation undertaken by the Sun Journal, however, appears to refute Michael’s story. After a number of telephone interviews with people contacted by the ethics commission, there were no allegations of rough treatment by investigators and people confirmed the stories that they told to the ethics commission.

Reached on his cell phone Wednesday, Michael again questioned the conduct of the ethics commission, but the anger from Friday had dissipated and his tone was more circumspect.

While he said he still believes that the commission staff was overly aggressive, his campaign is checking “to see if there’s any meat on these allegations and that’s something we need to research more.”

But he didn’t moderate his overall statement. He said he still believes there’s an illegitimate effort to deny his campaign public financing.

Gubernatorial candidates must collect at least 2,500 $5 contributions to the Maine Clean Election Fund to qualify for public financing.

During its review of Michael’s efforts, the staff of the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices found evidence that it said suggested a pattern of fraud as well as other irregularities, including missed deadlines, incomplete paperwork and incorrect information, in regards to the 2,690 contributions he submitted.

Based on the evidence collected, the ethics commission staff denied Michael public money.

One of the most damaging allegations made by the ethics commission – and which could expose those involved to criminal prosecution – is that Michael’s campaign claimed contributions from people who did not actually make them. The commission identified 18 such people after talking with 218 of those listed as contributors by Michael – or 8.3 percent of its survey total.

Since the initial news broke about the Michael’s campaign, another person has come forward saying that he did not make a contribution despite being listed as doing so, said Paul Lavin, assistant director of the ethics commission.

Another was identified by the Sun Journal during its investigation.

“The fact that they could only come up with 8 percent that they could manipulate into saying that they didn’t give a contribution means that more than 90 percent said they remembered,” Michael said Wednesday. “When the state has somebody they don’t like, they run interference. … This gang in power, they do that because they want to hold onto their cushy, little jobs.”

This week, the Sun Journal was able to reach nine of those people by telephone. Messages were left for five others. The remaining four could not be located. The nine said they had not made a contribution on Michael’s behalf and all nine said that they had been treated politely and professionally by the ethics commission.

Their reactions ranged from certainty about their actions to bewilderment to worry about how they had gotten tangled up in an ethics commission investigation.

One Lewiston woman, who asked not to be named because she was afraid she would get in trouble, was adamant.

“If he says I gave him a contribution, he’s a liar and I’ll tell him that,” she said.

She described her personal financial situation. She said she lives on $603 a month from disability after back and neck surgery and depends upon Section 8 housing. She said she doesn’t have a dime to spare.

“I don’t even have enough to live on, enough to eat,” she said. “If I had $5 I’d put it in my pocket and get the medicine I need.”

The woman said she was contacted by the ethics commission and that the caller was persistent but polite.

The whole situation, she said, has left her confused.

Lucille Mathieu, also of Lewiston, said she was approached by someone who said they were from Michael’s campaign as she was going into the post office.

She said that she might have signed a petition or something for Michael, but that she didn’t make a contribution.

“I had $5 on me, but I couldn’t spare it,” Mathieu said.

Walter Gowen and his wife, Crise Taylor, both signed what they thought was Michael’s petition to get on the ballot, they said, but they didn’t give contributions.

Gowen said he doesn’t even have a checking account.

Taylor, who spoke with the ethics commission, described the caller as polite.

“They were actually nice about it,” Taylor said. “If they had been rude they would have gotten it right back.”

“As my husband said,” Taylor said, “we both signed a paper, but we didn’t make a contribution. We’re on a limited budget.”

Gowen was identified by the ethics commission; Taylor was not.

Elena Fiske of York said that she neither made a contribution to Michael nor signed a petition for him to get on the ballot.

Delores Simpson of Clinton described her encounter with the Michael’s campaign. She was approached outside the post office in Waterville, she said.

“They said the $5 was already there. They said all I needed to do is sign,” Simpson said.

Simpson asked if she was going to get in trouble, but added, “I’m not going to say I gave it if I didn’t.”

The callers from the ethics commission, she said, were polite and called only a few days after she signed the petition.

Jayson Lobozzo of South Portland said he signed a petition that he was told would grant Michael clean election money, “but I definitely didn’t give a $5 contribution.”

Ellen Gutekunst of South Portland said she was approached by someone circulating a petition to get a new party on the ballot as she was coming out of the post office. She said that she was almost certain that she didn’t make a contribution but wouldn’t go as far as some of the others and say for sure.

None of the people reached by the Sun Journal could identify the person who they talked to from the Michael’s campaign.

Two others, Susan Dana of Cape Elizabeth and Julie MacDonald of Falmouth, provided sworn statements to the ethics commission, attesting to the fact that they did not make a contribution for Michael.

Those statements were obtained from the ethics commission through Maine’s Freedom of Access Act.

In her affidavit, Dana said that she was approached outside the post office in South Portland by a campaign worker who asked if she would sign a form to get Michael on the ballot. The worker did not mention the Maine Clean Election Act. Dana said the worker asked her for a contribution and she told him she would not give one.

MacDonald’s affidavit provided a similar account except that in her case, the campaign worker did not ask for money. MacDonald did not make a contribution, she said.

One person who did make a contribution and was among those questioned by the ethics commission is Auburn City Councilor Bob Mennealy. He said that he was asked if he had given a $5 contribution for Michael to the Maine Clean Election Fund and if he had received anything in return.

He was not one of the 18 identified by the ethics commission who denied making a contribution but was listed by Michael’s campaign as contributor.

“John is a friend of mine,” Mennealy said. “I gave him a contribution freely.”

Mennealy said he received his first call on a Saturday, when an investigator left a message for him. He returned that call and then was called again on Monday.

“I thought it was kind of crass,” Mennealy said. “I wouldn’t say they were rude, but they definitely took an investigative tone. … They were digging, let’s put it that way.”

Mennealy said he was surprised by the ethics commission’s findings.

“Everything was completely above board and done in a professional manner,” Mennealy said of his contact with the Michael campaign.

Told of the findings of the Sun Journal’s inquiry, Michael stayed on message.

“When the state calls you up – and remember more than 90 percent said they remembered (making a contribution) – people get scared. I’ve been through this before with these guys,” Michael said.

The deadline to file an appeal with the ethics commission is Friday. Michael said that he planned to talk with his lawyer today, but that he anticipated that the campaign would appeal.