AUGUSTA — State ethics officials say they may conduct an additional investigation into allegations that a staffer working for a former Republican gubernatorial candidate committed fraud while collecting qualifying contributions.

Last week, state Sen. Jim Libby (R-Standish) dropped out of the race for governor after staff at the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices found that he did not meet the threshold to qualify for state funds.

State law requires candidates running for governor to collect 3,200 valid qualifying contributions of $5 each from registered voters if they want to use the state’s public financing system.

And while the commission staff does not accuse Libby of wrongdoing, it identifies someone referred to as “Collector 1” who they believe asked people to say they gave $5 in qualifying contributions when they had not. 

“Those are fraudulent QC’s as defined in the commission’s rules,” according to the staff determination.

The report goes on to say staff found 15 instances when this occurred but noted that time limits for making a decision made it “impossible to determine the exact number of fraudulent QC’s claimed by Collector 1.”

In a statement to Spectrum News, Ethics Commission Executive Director Jonathan Wayne said because there could be an ongoing investigation, the commission is keeping some documents and names confidential.

“There may be additional investigation into this issue, but the Commission is not going to comment concerning timing or personnel of that investigation,” he said. 

Libby’s campaign failed to reach that threshold “due to defects such as missing or unsigned documentation, failure to provide proof that some contributors were registered to vote, signatures on paperwork that do not appear to be authentic” and contributions from unregistered voters, according to the report.

And while commission staff said it did not find evidence that Libby “authorized the collection of fraudulent QC’s” it did say he should have appointed a compliance director who might have detected the fraud.

With Libby’s departure from the June 9 Republican primary, there are seven remaining candidates for governor: Jonathan Bush, Bobby Charles, David Jones, Garrett Mason, Owen McCarthy, Ben Midgley and Robert Wessels.