Scandals rarely determine the outcome of a major political race in Maine. Our politics are generally clean and relatively free of corruption.

There are exceptions. One was the set-to in 1996 between two Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by William Cohen, who retired at the top of his game after 18 years in the Senate.

There was a nasty feud between John Hathaway, who was rumored to have behaved improperly with a baby sitter in his native Alabama, and Robert Monks, who, it was established, had hired an investigator. The battle destroyed both candidacies and helped elect Susan Collins to the seat just two years after she had finished third in the governor’s race with 23 percent of the vote.

So far, this year’s scandals are not game-changers, yet they are notable, not the least for how the candidates and press have reacted.

First District Rep. Chellie Pingree’s travel on her fiance Donald Sussman’s jet has produced multiple stories from almost every reporter who covers politics. The story, spurred by a video from a Republican blogger showing the first-term Democrat arriving at the Portland Jetport, is a nonscandal to which Pingree’s opponents have applied innuendo.

The House Ethics Committee, with equal representation from Republicans and Democrats, confirmed what Pingree said earlier – that House rules permit members to travel with family.

The GOP suggests there’s something scandalous about a Democrat planning marriage to a Wall Street financier, and that Pingree had earlier criticized congressmen for accepting jet trips (and hotel rooms, lavish meals and other entertainment) from lobbyists.

The distinction is simple: In one case, lobbyists try to buy votes in favor of their clients. In the other, the House member is traveling with family, saving taxpayers the ticket price.

Foiled in the first round, Republicans then found it suspicious that the jet was registered to a corporation wholly owned by Sussman, who said he did it for liability purposes. Pretty thin stuff, but good for two to three days in the media limelight.

Compare the press treatment of Paul LePage’s difficulties over his family members’ residency in Florida, and the claiming of dual homestead property exemptions in Maine and Florida. Where Pingree answered every question from the media, even concerning a flight plan to New York where her son lives, LePage’s complete response to a tangled affair involving an admitted legal violation was to label it a “paperwork error” and attack reporters for covering it.

During the first televised debate of the campaign at the University of Maine at Augusta, LePage devoted his closing statement – usually where candidates sum up proposals – to protesting his treatment.

“The last two weeks have been real rough,” LePage said, and then apologized for using “the BS word” at a news conference. He then introduced his wife, Ann, who filed the double homestead applications, and went on to criticize Richard Connor — publisher of the Portland Press Herald, Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel, and an avowed conservative — for the papers’ coverage. State House reporter Rebecca Metzler is the only one who has consistently followed the story, which was quickly abandoned by most other papers, though a Daytona, Fla., reporter has remained on it.

To sum up, we have abundant coverage of one issue, the Pingree-Sussman flights, where no law or congressional rule was broken.

On the other, with the LePage tax and residency issue, where the candidate admitted to a violation of two state laws that required repayment of $3,000 to municipalities, reporters have generally dropped the story without asking obvious questions.

The most obvious: What is the LePage family’s commitment to Maine? After he denied his connection, reporters documented that LePage was an original co-owner of his Waterville residence and that he co-signed the mortgage of the Florida home claimed as a residence by his wife.

We also know that two of the LePages’ children attended three semesters each at Florida State University claiming resident tuition, a status saving the family about $45,000. Ann LePage twice voted in Florida, and held a driver’s license there before obtaining one in Maine in July. No one has yet worked up the nerve to ask her whether she intends to register in Maine and vote for her husband.

Nevertheless, LePage seems intent on keeping the matter before the public by claiming persecution and attacking those who file accurate reports.

The ultimate arbiters of such matters are the voters, who will render their judgment on Nov. 2.