AUGUSTA — The state ethics commission voted 4-1 on Monday to allow a Maine House of Representatives candidate to pay his son $100 in public funds to play guitar at a campaign event.
Robert "Bo" Zabierek of Sherman asked the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices if state law would permit him to pay his 19-year-old son, James, to play at a Rock & Register event scheduled for October.
James Zabierek is a member of a group called Kirbside Prophet.
His father is using state money through the Maine Clean Election Act to pay for his campaign. House candidates get $4,144 for their campaigns.
Earlier this year, the Legislature voted to ban payments of clean election money to family members unless certain conditions are met.
Zabierek told the commission he is hosting the event to attract younger people to vote for him. His opponent in the race is Rep. Henry Joy, R-Crystal, who has served 14 years in the House.
"He has the 65-plus vote sewn up in my district, so I had to attract new voters," Zabierek said.
Most ethics commission members agreed the case met all three of the criteria for allowing a family member to be paid with Clean Election Act money. They determined that a band is a legitimate campaign expense, part of the son's normal course of business and that the amount to be paid is consistent with market value.
Commission member Walter McKee said candidates should get some leeway when determining what kinds of activities are campaign-related.
"You don't get a lot of 'rock the vote' without a band there," he said.
Commission member Francis Marsano voted against allowing the expenditure, saying he did not consider it a legitimate campaign expense.
Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, a coalition of groups that advocates for the Clean Election Act program, said it also did not consider it a legitimate campaign expense.
Alison Smith, co-chairwoman of the group, said the new law was passed this year in response to payments made by former independent gubernatorial candidate Barbara Merrill to her husband during the 2006 campaign. Merrill paid her husband $109,000 to work on her campaign.
Since then, lawmakers voted to ban payments to family members but did allow for a few exceptions.
One exception is in an instance in which the family business is the primary supplier of a particular service, such as a sign maker who "routinely designs and prints materials for candidates," she said.
In this instance, Smith said James Zabierek could play for free and that she didn't consider it a campaign-related expense on par with yard signs.
"This does seem a little bit farther removed from yard signs or palm cards," she said. "Can this event be held without a band? It is tenuously campaign-related."
Commission Chairman Michael Friedman said the band expense is just as legitimate as paying for flags or bunting to decorate for an event.
"We see bands at campaign events all the time," he said.
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