Maine Republican loses funding over fraud allegations

A Maine Republican running for state governor failed to qualify for the state’s clean election program due of fraud allegations, according to the Bangor Daily News.

Republican Sen. James Libby was the most prominent Republican running for the state’s “clean election” campaign funding program, but his staffers got him disqualified by the state board over allegedly shady dealings.

“The Maine Ethics Commission on Thursday quashed [his] aspirations after ruling that only 2,870 of the 3,937 qualifying $5 contributions Libby submitted were valid. He needed at least 3,200 to qualify for the clean election program,” reports Daily News.

The commission rejected his qualifying contributions due to defects such as missing or unsigned documentation, signatures on his paperwork not appearing to be authentic, and failure to provide proof that some contributors were even registered to vote.

Additionally, one of Libby’s collectors appears to have asked members of the public to falsely claim they had made qualifying contributions to Libby’s fund without any actual contribution.

The Daily News reports there was no evidence that Libby personally authorized that signature-gatherer’s tactics, but the commission found he lacked staff who could have spotted the fraud sooner.

And it did not help his case that this same staffer was also accused of offering to pay someone under the table to help qualify Libby for the clean election program.

The commission’s staff had only since April 1 to review submitted documentation to check for fraudulent contributions but still discovered 15 cases. The commission noted that it is still “impossible to determine the exact number” of fraudulent qualifying contributions but it could exceed 100 cases.

Maine is a swing state that voted against President Donald Trump in the last election, but it serves as the home for centrist GOP U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, who is critical to the Republican majority in the Senate.