Politics
Our political journalists are based in the Maine State House and have deep source networks across the partisan spectrum in communities all over the state. Their coverage aims to cut through major debates and probe how officials make decisions. Read more Politics coverage here.
The Maine Ethics Commission handed down a $100,000 fine to ActBlue on Wednesday after the Democratic fundraising platform filed a campaign finance report two weeks late.
ActBlue’s registered political action committee in the state was 14 days late filing a report due July 15 that covered $1.2 million worth of donations to candidates and causes in the second quarter of 2024. The committee tried to upload more than 13,000 transactions to the ethics commission’s online filing system but faced a staffing shortage, delays and other errors.
Under Maine law, regulators were allowed to fine ActBlue up to $683,000. But a commission staffer said during Tuesday’s meeting that ActBlue had been “exceedingly cooperative” with the commission, and staff recommended a reduction of up to 85% of that amount.
After debate that included initial motions to levy a $125,000 fine and then a $102,560 fine, Commissioner David Hastings, a former Republican state senator from Fryeburg, recommended the $100,000 penalty that the five-person panel unanimously agreed to.
The volume of money handled by ActBlue made this one of the heaviest ethics penalties in Maine history. Backers of a 2017 failed casino push were given $500,000 in fines that were later reduced to $100,000 in a settlement with the commission. Before that, the biggest penalty ever handed out was about $50,000 against a conservative group that shielded its donors.
ActBlue, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit group founded in 2004, is the backbone of Democrats’ online infrastructure, handling donations to candidates at all levels of government. Republicans founded WinRed in 2019 to counter ActBlue’s dominance in the fundraising arena.
