The Maine Ethics Commission fined Democratic gubernatorial candidate Diane Russell Wednesday for not fully disclosing the purpose of dozens of campaign expenditures.
Russell avoided the maximum allowed penalty of $6,000 when the four-member commission assessed a $300 fine.
The former state representative attempted to convince the commission that state's campaign filing system is too burdensome.
"If I can't, as one of the best computer genuises in the state -- not coding -- figure out how to amend and then file the amendment, that is part of the problem," she said.
Commissioner Brad Pattersall was not persuaded. "It's minimal. You're running for the highest office in the state and you're saying this is undoably burdensome, to answer the questions of the ethics staff," he said.
The commission's fine comes two weeks before the June 12 primary and at a time when Russell's campaign committee is saddled with over $70,000 in debt.
Russell is one of seven candidates competing for the Democratic nomination.
The fine assessed Wednesday was not Russell’s first. Her unsuccessful state senate campaign committee was fined $500 in 2016 when she failed to report using an email list as a contribution to her campaign. A political action committee she operated was fined more than $4,000 for incomplete and unfiled campaign finance reports.
This story was originally published May 30, 2018 at 1:33 p.m. ET.
