Maine: Ethics Commission

State Senate candidate Dana Kadey has been ordered to reimburse the state for personal purchases made with public campaign funds.

As first reported last week by PolitickerME.com, purchases made by the independent candidate from Princeton -- including a GPS unit, cooler, truck cap and roof rack -- were under review by the Maine Ethics Commission.

Two legislative candidates found themselves in a frustrating predicament Friday morning.

Legislative candidates have the opportunity to sign the “2008 Maine Code of Fair Campaign Practices” with the Ethics Commission. Doing so is voluntary. Kenneth Capron of Portland and Kimberly McLaughlin of Yarmouth allege that their opponents signed the code and then violated it, and brought the case before the commission at their monthly meeting Friday.

Candidates running with public financing will have a little less money to work with this year.

In the latest round of budget cuts, the Legislature cut 5 percent of funding for Clean Elections candidates. It’s not that big of a deal, said Jonathan Wayne, executive director of the Ethics’ Commission -- it’s the lawmakers’ way of sharing the sacrifice of the budget cuts.

The reductions would mean the following: