An anonymous benefactor offered to bail out two legislative candidates who violated Clean Elections law to the tune of $30,000, and the Citizens Clean Elections Commission voted to take the money.

The fines date back to the 2002 election, when Libertarians Paul DeDonati and Trevor Clevenger were found by the commission to have failed to account for more than $30,000 in public campaign funding each had received.

They had agreed to pay $15,000 each, plus interest, as part of a settlement over a period of several years but fell behind in their payments in May and June this year. The delinquencies were referred to the Attorney General’s Office for collection, and lawyers representing the two subsequently contacted the AG’s office with an offer from an anonymous source to pay off the settlement if interest was waived.

The commission voted 4-1 to accept the latest offer, stipulating, on a motion from Commissioner Ermila Jolley, that the payment be made in guaranteed funds drawn on a well-known bank.

Candidates Originally Ordered To Repay All Funding

Each candidate originally had been ordered to repay all the public funding they had received in 2002 — $31,416.93 for Mr. DeDonati and $31,664.72 for Mr. Clevenger — but the commission accepted the reduced amounts of $15,000 each when Ms. Connor determined the two men’s financial circumstances were such that they were unlikely to be able to pay off the full amounts in any reasonable amount of time.

Commissioner Kathleen Detrick balked at the latest offer and urged her fellow commissioners to reject the settlement and instead allow the Attorney General’s Office to pursue “all legal means” to collect the delinquent payments.

Commissioner Marcia Busching said she understood Ms. Detrick’s frustration but felt the commission had to “realistically accept the offer.”

Diana Varela, legal counsel for the commission, said an anonymous offer to pay off a fine is unusual but that the previous settlement agreement did not prohibit such an arrangement.

In another enforcement matter, the Clean Elections Commission voted 5-0 to dismiss any further enforcement action against Mark Manoil and Nina Trasoff, unsuccessful Democratic candidates for the Corporation Commission.

Mr. Manoil and Ms. Trasoff had been the subject of possible disciplinary action because the commission determined they had failed to provide enough detail on how they spent public campaign money.

The two subsequently provided additional information, including details on what was paid for various goods and services. Because they complied with the commission’s order for that information, further disciplinary action is not warranted, commission director Colleen Connor said at the Nov. 30 meeting.—