Campaign audit raises conflict issue (Merrill paid husband $100K)

[MaineDem]

AUGUSTA — An audit of independent Barbara Merrill's 2006 publicly funded gubernatorial campaign uncovered no irregularities but did raise questions "about the forthrightness of the campaign's financial reporting," says the executive director of the state's election commission.

In a memo prepared for Monday's meeting of the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices, Jonathan Wayne writes that "more than one-ninth of Barbara Merrill's total campaign expenditures were paid to her husband as compensation for his services, but one would not know that by reading her campaign finance reports."

Merrill received $915,732 for her campaign as a qualified candidate under the Maine Clean Election Act, $400,000 as an initial payment for the election and $515,732 in matching funds, according to the audit.

Of that amount, more than $109,000 was "apparently" paid to Merrill's husband, the veteran political campaign organizer Philip Merrill, who was both the campaign's assistant treasurer and the operator of a business to produce and place the campaign's advertising, according to the ethics commission staff.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=120432&ac=PHnws

May not be illegal but it sure seems unethical.