AUGUSTA – Maine’s ethics commission fined a Portland legislator $2,000 Wednesday for omitting expenditures from reports for her political action committee. Rep. Diane Russell faced a maximum penalty of $10,000.

Her political action committee, The Working Families PAC, failed to report expenditures totaling $1,235 in 2014.

Russell, the principal officer of the PAC, subsequently added the expenditures but did not complete the re-filing of the report, according an Ethics Commission staff memo.

Ethics staff reduced the potential $10,000 fine to $2,000. An attorney representing Russell’s PAC argued for a further reduced penalty, but commissioners noted the ethics staff made several efforts this year to notify Russell of the violation but often didn’t receive a response.

 

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