AUGUSTA, Maine — The Maine attorney general’s office said Friday that it is evaluating competing legal claims that arose from a Sept. 4 conference call among several nonprofit groups that was recorded surreptitiously by a conservative think-tank employee.
Both sides allege illegal activity by the other.
Members of two of the groups involved in the controversy, the Maine People’s Alliance and Maine Equal Justice Partners, said Friday that they have not been contacted about the allegations by the conservative Maine Heritage Policy Center that the conference call constituted a violation of election laws.
Officials from the Maine Heritage Policy Center said in a news release on Wednesday that it had sent a written request to Attorney General Janet Mills, a Democrat, to investigate whether the conference call last week that included Maine Equal Justice Partners, the Maine People’s Alliance and other groups constituted a violation of election laws.
The groups’ stated purpose for the conference call was to formulate a response to references about immigration included in a Republican Governors Association advertisement that supported incumbent Gov. Paul LePage and made claims against his Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud.
Maine Heritage Policy Center’s statement saying it would request a probe came just hours after the Bangor Daily News reported Wednesday that one of the center’s employees, Steve Robinson, had dialed into the invitation-only conference call, recorded it, then released the recording.
Robinson initially told the BDN he had obtained the recording from a source he wanted to keep confidential. He later admitted to recording the conversation after the BDN called him on a number listed on the log of callers who had dialed in to the conference call.
The Maine People’s Alliance requested an investigation into whether Robinson had broken any laws — which a lawyer told the BDN was not likely.
The Maine Heritage Policy Center said it then sent a letter to Mills inquiring whether the organizations involved in the conference call had broken the law by collaborating to defend Michaud against the Republican Governors Association advertisement. Doing so, Maine Heritage Policy Center argues, would constitute partisan political activity that some of the nonprofit organizations that took part in the call are barred from doing.
Tim Feeley, Mills’ spokesman, said late Friday that her office had received both requests.
“We are aware of the concerns, and we will evaluate them,” said Feeley in an email to the BDN. “We have now received communications from both sides of the matter.”
Matt Gagnon, the Maine Heritage Policy Center’s executive director, said Friday that the center had resubmitted the request as he feared his organization’s letter may be been lost in a “miscommunication.”
“We resent it this morning, just in case,” said Gagnon.
Mike Tipping, a spokesman for the Maine People’s Alliance, said Friday afternoon that members of his organization had received correspondence from the attorney general’s office about the query from Maine People’s Alliance but had not been contacted about the Maine Heritage Policy Center’s claims.
Sara Gagne Holmes of Maine Equal Justice Partners also said Friday afternoon that her organization has not been contacted about the center’s allegations.
