Couple can’t prove MCEA purchases, owes $3,000

A Skowhegan couple has to pay back nearly $3,000 in Clean Elections funds because they could not provide documentation proving the purchases were actually made.

Paul Hatch ran for Senate in 2006. His wife, Pamela, ran for the House of Representatives, both as Democrats and Clean Elections Act candidates.

Both lost, and both were selected for random audit by the state’s ethics commission.

The audit, which started in June and was released last week, cited them for a number of violations, the most serious of which was that they did not have proofs of purchases for postage and copies they itemized on their reports.

Ethics Commission members voted 3 to 1 Friday that the Hatches would have to pay back the $2,973.54 they couldn’t account for, plus a $500 fine.

At Friday’s hearing, the Hatches said they ran their campaigns honestly, but simply lost the receipts. They were tossed in the recycling with the newspapers, or got lost in the shuffle of moving stuff around the house, Pamela Hatch said.

“It was stupid on my part, but not intentional,” she said in the proceedings.

They agreed to take full responsibility and pay back whatever the commission determined, to not drag the process out.

One commission member asked if it would help to have more time to go back to the vendors, or find other proof of purchases. They’ve already turned up every corner, Pamela Hatch said.

“I can’t fulfill my end of the bargain so I owe some money,” Paul Hatch said.

Paul said, in hindsight, he wishes they had never participated in Clean Elections, and won’t participate again.

Another finding that concerned the commission was that the Hatches bought some campaign materials with their own money. Pamela said toward the end of the campaign they did make some advance purchases, just in case their opponents came through with a last minute purchase, entitling them to more funds that they might not have time to use.

“In the last couple weeks of the campaign you get hit with things you can’t respond to,” Pamela Hatch said, later adding: “We did things not because I was trying to do something wrong. Past experience told me I better be prepared.”

Member David Shiah, a Bowdoinham Democrat, was the lone dissenting vote. He noted the couple’s lack of problems in their previous campaign experience, which dates back to 1992.

“It’s difficult in this case, because of their track record with no problems,” he said.