AUGUSTA – The Maine ethics commission continued to wrestle with what constitutes “express advocacy” during its meeting Friday.

In one case, the commission overturned a decision by its staff to award matching money to several Oxford County Republican candidates for a newspaper insert produced by the Oxford County Democrats.

But the money, at least some of it, was already gone and the staff’s actions from earlier in the week couldn’t be undone.

Republican state Sen. David Hastings, who’s facing a tough battle against Democrat Marge Medd in Senate District 13, had already spent some of the extra money his campaign had received. Commissioners decided, in a 2-1 vote, that while the staff had erred in its ruling, there would be no fair way to ask Hastings to return the money.

Any other candidates who received matching money for the flier but had yet to spend it, however, won’t be allowed to.

In the case of the Hastings-Medd race, the amount that Hastings had already obligated will be subtracted from any future matching funds he might be entitled to.

The ruling also affected six races for the House of Representatives in Districts 91, 92, 93, 94, 95 97, 99 and 100 and Senate District 14.

In September, the Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices, ruled that advertising run by the Maine Democratic Party and the Republican Governors Association should not be considered express advocacy and should not trigger matching money for publicly financed campaigns

The decision tested the limits of what is and is not express advocacy and was appealed to Superior Court, which heard the case Oct. 18. A decision is pending.

The commission was forced to split the same hairs in five other cases Friday. At issue was whether direct mail pieces by the Democratic and Republican parties represented express advocacy and should trigger matching funding.

“It’s the exact same procedure we dealt with last time,” said Commissioner Vinton Cassidy. “We’re just trying to be consistent with what we’ve done in the past.”