AUGUSTA – The state ethics commission has fined the Maine Democratic Party more than $400 for failing to report an expenditure made in the House District 89 special election, which takes place on Tuesday.

The Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices voted on the penalty during its monthly meeting Thursday.

The party spent about $870 on a mailing in support of Democratic candidate Dennis Haszco of Farmington on Jan. 17, but failed to report the spending within the 24-hour time period required under the Maine Clean Elections Act. As a result, matching funds were delayed to Republican candidate Lance Harvell of Farmington by four days. Both men are clean election candidates.

The party offered no excuse for the late filing, according to Dan Walker, who represented the party before the commission.

“We make no excuses on why it wasn’t filed,” he said. “All I can say is we did file it the second it came to our attention.”

Dan Billings, who spoke on behalf of the Maine Republican Party, said the Democrats should get credit for self-reporting the error.

“They probably could have gotten away with it in this case,” he said. “This is not a serious violation compared to some of the other ones taken up more recently. I don’t think a substantial penalty in this case would be appropriate or necessary.”

But the commission should recognize that the delay in reporting caused a corresponding delay in matching funds, which is significant, Billings said.

Under the law, commissioners could have fined the party up to $10,000 in addition to a routine late fee determined by formula. Commission staff recommended a penalty of no more than $2,500 and Billings recommended a fine of about $1,000.

The commission assessed a penalty of $250, on top of the routine fee of $175 already levied against the group.

House District 89, which consists of Farmington and Industry, was vacated last month when former Rep. Janet Mills was elected by the Legislature to serve as Maine’s attorney general.

During the general election last fall, the Maine Democratic Party faced fines for two similar clean elections violations.

The fines paid by the party in those cases totaled about $5,300.

In the first violation last fall, the party claimed staff did not realize a mailing was advocating for a specific candidate, therefore requiring an expenditure report.

The second case involved two mailings sent by the party in the Senate District 16 race between then-Democratic candidate Deborah Simpson of Auburn and Republican candidate Lois Snowe-Mello of Poland. That time, the party claimed its vendor changed the mailer’s wording without approval. As a result, the report was filed 20 days late.

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