AUGUSTA – Two Democratic state representatives said they are pleased that a government ethics commission found they did not intentionally break the law by accepting campaign contributions from lobbyists.
State Reps. Janet Mills of Farmington and Thomas Saviello of Wilton said in a statement they appreciated Wednesday’s decision by the Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices.
The two Democrats received $25 contributions from attorney Michael Gentile on March 8. Saviello also accepted a donation of $50 from attorney William Taylor on March 11. Campaign contributions cannot be solicited or accepted while the legislature is still in session or before March 15, the candidate filing deadline, to avoid the appearance or actuality of influence.
Both representatives said they had not intentionally taken campaign contributions from lobbyists prior to March 15 which would violate clean election statutes.
And intent was the crux of the matter.
Commissioner Andrew Ketterer of Madison said the statute specifically states that legislators may not intentionally solicit campaign funding from lobbyists prior to March 15. Neither he nor other commissioners thought the representatives intended to break the law.
“It wasn’t a violation because it wasn’t intentional,” Ketterer said in an interview Friday.
Unknown to the lawmakers, Gentile was registered as a lobbyist for the town of Jay, which is not in either of their districts, Mills said.
She also said there is no reference to lobbyists’ contributions in the 36-page informational booklet distributed to all clean elections candidates. She said she saw many flaws in the statute and offered to help rewrite it.
“There were many inconsistencies between lobbyists’ statutes and clean elections statutes,” she said. “The more I looked at it, the more flaws I saw.”
Saviello agreed with the commissioners’ assertion, saying there was never a violation because there was no intent.
“It’s sad this thing got totally blown out of proportion,” he said.
The commission recommended that the representatives return the contributions from their campaign budgets and replace them with personal funds so their budgets will remain intact. Campaign financial statements have already been filed with the state and returning the funds without replacing them would cause discrepancies in the books.
Both lawmakers said they intend to return the funds.
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