U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree’s campaign has been fined $9,750 by the Federal Election Commission, and she was ordered to repay more than $13,000 for twice flying on her then-fiance’s jet in violation of federal campaign laws.

The FEC released its ruling, called a conciliation agreement, on Thursday, nearly five years after the Maine Republican Party filed a complaint back in September 2010.

The FEC agreement with Pingree

The Federal Election Commission has fined Maine’s U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, for accepting two flights on the jet of her then-fiance during the 2010 campaign. Press Herald File Photo/John Ewing

The party, with help from a conservative blog, tracked Pingree’s travel for months during the 2010 campaign and videotaped her arriving at Portland International Jetport in a plane owned by S. Donald Sussman, to whom she was engaged at the time.

Pingree, 60, of North Haven, who is serving her fourth term in the U.S. House, was cleared of any violation of House rules in 2010 by the House Ethics Committee.

However, the FEC, which has different guidelines, investigated and concluded that the flights constituted improper campaign gifts because Sussman already had donated the maximum amount to Pingree’s campaign.

“I disagreed with the way the FEC looked at those two trips, but in the end it seemed like the best thing to do was to settle the disagreement,” Pingree said in a statement Thursday. “I’ve reimbursed my husband for the flights and my campaign has paid the fine we agreed to. After five years, I hope this settles this matter and we can go back to talking about issues that matter more to people here in Maine.”

Maine GOP Chairman Rick Bennett said in a statement that the FEC’s decision vindicated the party’s initial complaint and he called Pingree “out of touch with the working people of Maine’s first district.”

The difference between the House ethics rules and FEC rules had to do with the fact that Pingree and Sussman were engaged at the time, not married.

House ethics rules consider fiances family members; FEC rules do not. That means that Pingree could have flown on Sussman’s jet for House business or personal reasons but not for any campaign event.

Pingree and Sussman have said they were engaged shortly after the 2008 election, but engagements – unlike marriages – are not legally documented.

Pingree has said that the flights in question – on Sept. 13 and Sept. 30 – were not campaign flights and that she simply accompanied her partner on flights he already had planned.

The flights came to light in 2010 after a staff member for a now-defunct conservative blog, MaineWatchdog.org, videotaped Pingree arriving at Portland International Jetport in a 2007 Dassault Falcon 2000EX jet registered to Magic Carpet Enterprises of Westchester County, New York, which is owned by Sussman.

The blog claimed that Pingree’s use of her fiance’s jet was hypocritical, particularly because Pingree used to rail about lawmakers accepting such perks when she was head of the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization Common Cause.

MaineWatchdog.org was funded by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, a conservative organization that at the time included journalists Jack Fowler and Tucker Carlson on its advisory council. Its then-president was Jason Stverak, who was previously director of the North Dakota Republican Party.

The Maine Republican Party and Pingree’s 2010 campaign opponent, Dean Scontras, also criticized Pingree’s travel habits.

According to flight logs, Sussman’s jet made dozens of landings in 2010 in Portland, Washington, D.C., and at Knox County Regional Airport, which is near the ferry to North Haven, where Pingree still has a house. Those logs do not say whether Pingree was a passenger, but there is no prohibition against using the jet for House business or for personal use.

However, the FEC said because two flights were linked to campaign events in 2010, and because Pingree failed to disclose and reimburse from her campaign, that’s where she erred.

The flight controversy did not adversely affect Pingree’s campaign. She won re-election with 57 percent support over Scontras in November 2010.

She and Sussman married the next year.

Sussman, a wealthy hedge-fund manager and philanthropist, has been a major donor to Democratic and progressive political causes in Maine.

He also is a former owner of MaineToday Media, which publishes the Portland Press Herald.

Bennett, in his statement, was at times more critical of Sussman than Pingree.

“Congresswoman Pingree’s husband is known to have parked his money in tax shelters in the Virgin Islands while spending vast amounts of money supporting politicians who have raised taxes on Maine families,” Bennett said. “And Congresswoman Pingree was always proud to rail against politicians flying on private jets, right up until she was exposed for violating FEC rules with her actions.”

FEC violations are actually quite common for U.S. House and Senate members and candidates. In the last 12 months, the commission has fined 192 people a total of $1.6 million.

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