The attorney for independent gubernatorial candiate Eliot Cutler identified political consultant Dennis Bailey, former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rosa Scarcelli and her husband, Thom Rhoads, as the authors of the website The Cutler Files, according to documents released this week.
Attorney Dick Spencer wrote in a memo to Jonathan Wayne, executive director of the state’s ethics commisson, saying the commission should interview Bailey and Rhoads under oath to determine how much money was spent on the site. It also suggested that ethics officials find out “who owned the Cutler Files research materials at the end of the primary campaign.”
“Was it the Scarcelli campaign, the candidate, the candidate’s spouse, Mr. Bailey as the campaign’s political consultant or someone else?” Spencer wrote.
Bailey worked for Scarcelli during her run in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. She finished third in a four-way race.
The 49 documents and 163 emails released earlier this week came in response to a Freedom of Access Act request filed by the Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel with the Maine Commission on Govermental Ethics and Election Practices.
All of the documents are available for download through the links to the right.
In December, the ethics commission fined Bailey $200 for failing to comply with state campaign finance disclosure laws in relation to the Cutler Files. It did not find any violation against another person it investigated, who has remained anonymous and is only known as John Doe 1.
Wayne declined to identify that person on Thursday.
“We do not have any intention of identifying the other individual because the commissioners did not find that person violated campaign finance law,” he said.
The Portland Press Herald and other Maine newspapers have reported that second person is Rhoads; Rhoads has denied the allegation. Scarcelli has also denied involvement.
The documents released by the ethics commission indicate the scope of its investigation into the Cutler Files was largely contained to persons and records related to Bailey and the Scarcelli campaign for governor.
The Cutler Files, which was launched in late August, contained information critical of gubernatorial candidate Cutler, but the people behind the site wished to remain anonymous. Their attorney, Dan Billings, argued that the creators had a First Amendment right to anonymous political speech.
In a memo to Wayne released this week, one of the people behind the site described why they wished to remain anonymous.
“The thought was that if we put our name on it, people would check our party registrations and any past connections and conclude that we are just doing this website on behalf of one of the candidates or parties, and they would lose sight of what we are trying to say: that Eliot Cutler is not who he pretends to be,” the person wrote.
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