🧮 These Maine campaign arms can't balance their books.
◉ After a recent law changes, the Maine Ethics Commission has been calling all state-level political committees to ensure that bank balances match the figures disclosed to the regulator. While only seven of the 110 groups have discrepancies of $1,000 or more, some of them are major.
◉ The biggest gap belongs to the House Democratic Campaign Committee, the campaign arm for leaders in the lower chamber, which reported a cash balance that is roughly $69,000 higher than their bank account figure. A political group run by Senate Republicans has a $7,000 gap, while one led by House Speaker Rachel Talbot Ross, D-Portland, has a gap of nearly $6,000.
◉ There could be many reasons for the differences. The two caucus committees, for example, have been around for years and have gone through many different treasurers and leaders over that time. Ethics commission software has also changed during that time, and the treasurer of the Democratic group thinks the errors happened a long time ago.
◉ Ethics commissioners will consider the issues at their meeting next Monday. They could allow the groups to continue working to find the errors or simply allow balance adjustments if they are satisfied nothing untoward has happened.
👋 Expect the Legislature to return for a final day next week.
◉ It is looking like lawmakers will return to Augusta next week to handle late budget adjustments and any more Mills vetoes. The Legislative Council, a panel of leaders, has a meeting scheduled for next Thursday, so look around that time for a potential day for everyone to return.
Correction: Friday's newsletter incorrectly stated that Talbot Ross, was at a tribal event in Freeport last week. |
|
