Rep. Pamela Gorman’s “thorough and timely” response to an order requiring compliance with Clean Elections Act requirements resulted a finding that all her campaign spending was legal, that her reports satisfy requirements, and that she received no illegal contributions, investigator Gene Lemon advised Ms. Gorman, R-6, in a March 4 letter.

In another letter on the same date, Mr. Lemon told Sen. Ron Gould, R-3, that one complaint against him has been found groundless but that another requires payment of a civil penalty of $3,630.

In the Gorman case, Mr. Lemon, a former chairman of the Citizens Clean Elections Commission hired by the CCEC to investigate claimed violations of the campaign public-funding law, wrote that “I will recommend that the proceedings… be terminated, that the matters be closed and that a final order to those effects be entered.”

Mr. Gould, however, did not satisfy Mr. Lemon regarding a failure to properly report that the campaign was obligated in advance to pay for a phone bank that made campaign calls for his election committee. The Clean Elections Act puts such obligations in the category of spending that must be reported, Mr. Lemon told Mr. Gould, and such a report was not filed on time.

The law provides a penalty of $110 per day, and the report was 33 days late being filed, so Mr. Lemon will recommend that the CCEC impose a penalty of $3,630. Another complaint, alleging a violation of a requirement that payments be made directly to the person providing the campaign service, should be dismissed because Mr. Gould complied with the requirement promptly upon receiving CCEC notice, Mr. Lemon said. —