Maine Christian Civic League PAC Violation Determination This Morning‏

The Maine Ethics Commission voted this morning (about an hour ago) 2 - 2 to find no violation of PAC reporting on the part of the Christian Civic League of Maine's Christian Action League PAC ('doing business as' Marriage Matters in Maine' currently) in their 42-day Post-election report from last month.  McKee (who proposed the motion) and Amero voted for this motion and Duchette and Matheson voted against it (Commissioner Healy was not present at the meeting).

 

The Commission then motioned and voted 2 - 2 to find a violation by the League's PAC in their PAC reporting, with Duchette and Matheson voting for this motion and McKee and Amero voting against it.

 

The Commission's initial staff recommendation to the Commissioners was to not take any action on my complaint/request.  After the Commissioners asked questions of me, then Conley, Jr. (Executive Director of the League), then State Rep. Ray Wallace, Jonathan Wayne (Ethics Commission Executive Director) amended his staff recommendation to ask the Commissioners to make a decision upon my complaint/request (reversing his initial recommendation).

 

The Commission's staff verifed afterward for me that the end result of these decisions will be for the Christian Civic League of Maine to be forced to publicly amend their most recent Marriage Matters in Maine PAC reports, and the Commission's staff will report back to the Commissioners at their next meeting as to what additional 'corrective action,' if any, was taken by the League due to their PAC violation(s).

 

Susan Cover (of the Kennebec Journal) and Susan Sharon (of Maine Public Broadcasting) were in attendance, along with a camera crew from WMTW (Channel 8 - ABC).

 

Mike Hein

Augusta

207-485-3396