AUGUSTA – Members of the state ethics commission voted unanimously to fine the Maine Association of Realtors’ political action committee $10,000 on Monday for filing a campaign spending report 20 days late. The fine was the maximum possible.

Commissioners agreed with the panel’s staff recommendation that the PAC’s failure to report about $6,000 spent on two Republican state Senate candidates until four days before the election was a significant error.

“It’s a substantial violation and the maximum fine should be assessed,” said Commissioner Francis Marsano, a Republican from Belfast. “It’s a gross failure.”

Cindy Butts, the chief executive officer of the Maine Association of Realtors, was in charge of filing the PAC’s paperwork. She said before the commission on Monday the late filing was an unintentional, administrative mistake.

The PAC had already paid about $1,200 in an initial fine assessed by the commission staff.

“I just regret the error,” she said. “We have followed the rules for the past 30 years and this is our first mistake.”

Commissioner Mavourneen Thompson, a Democrat from Peaks Island, said the circumstances around the violation were moot.

“I understand it was inadvertent, but I think it’s essentially irrelevant,” she said. “The core of the Maine Clean Elections Act is to level the playing field between public and private money. I think it behooves us to preserve that core.”

On Oct. 10, the PAC spent about $3,000 each on behalf of Republicans Lois Snowe-Mello of Poland in Senate District 15 and Christopher Rector of Thomaston in Senate District 22. Under the Maine Clean Election Act, the PAC is required to report its spending within 24 hours so opposing candidates can receive matching funds in a timely fashion. The PAC failed to file the required paperwork until Oct. 31, preventing the release of matching funds until four days before Election Day.

Snowe-Mello lost her election to Democrat Deb Simpson by 108 votes, less than 1 percent of the votes cast. Rector defeated his opponent, Democrat David Miramant of Camden, by less than 2,000 votes.

The extra money might not have changed the outcome of the race, but it would have helped, Miramant said recently.

“We did everything we could (to win),” he said. “But I think it’s very appropriate for them to get the maximum fine.”

Jonathan Wayne, executive director of the commission staff, said the recommendation was based in part on two recent rulings by the commission.

In October, the commission levied a $5,000 fine against the Maine Democratic Party for filing a late report of spending on behalf of Simpson, and in November it assessed a $10,000 fine against the Fed Up with Taxes PAC for late reporting of advertising spending.

“We are recommending the maximum fine be assessed to make a statement to PACs and candidates that it is important to file these reports on time,” Wayne said at the meeting.

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