Sen. James Libby has ended his bid to be Maine’s governor failing to qualify for the state’s clean election program because of fraud allegations.
“As I did not qualify for Clean Elections financial support, I have determined that my campaign is no longer viable. I want to thank my supporters, and certainly wish that I could have given you the outcome that you fought for,” Libby said in a message on Facebook, Thursday.
Libby was running in the 10-person field for the Republican nomination and was the only prominent Republican trying to run as a clean elections candidate. Candidates who qualify are eligible to receive public funds for their campaigns.
But the Maine Ethics Commission earlier on Thursday ruled 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.
In a 34-page ruling, the commission invalidated a number of signatures over missing or unsigned documents, a lack of proof that contributors were registered to vote and inauthentic signatures, among other reasons.
There was no evidence that Libby authorized that signature-gatherer’s tactics, but the commission found he lacked staff who could have spotted the fraud sooner.
BDN writer Christopher Burns contributed reporting.
