Sanford man pleads guilty to campaign finance charges in Maine 2022 election bid

SANFORD, Maine — Matthew Toth pleaded guilty to two counts of unsworn falsification in connection with his attempts to raise campaign funds for his bid for the House District 143 seat in the Maine Legislature in 2022.

Toth, 25, of Sanford, apologized to Justice Le-Anne Sutton for his criminal actions related to seeking Maine Clean Election Law funds from the state in his hearing at the York Judicial Center in Biddeford on Thursday, Sept. 28.

“I will never do something like this again,” said Toth, dressed in a coat and tie. “I’m sorry about this.”

For his sentence, Toth will serve approximately 10 days of community service at Pine Tree Camp in Rome in Kennebec County, starting on Oct. 14. He will complete this sentence as an alternative to spending 10 days in York County Jail in Alfred.

In considering his sentence, Sutton said she took Toth’s youth, remorse, lack of any previous criminal history, and the complicated nature of campaign finance into account. Sutton also said she had received character references from individuals, on behalf of Toth.

Attorney Richard Berne, representing Toth, described his client as a “political novice,” who had difficulty understanding the instructions and requirements of officially seeking campaign funds.

“Ultimately, he cut some corners,” Berne said.

Toth had been facing 13 additional counts, but Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin successfully made a motion to dismiss them. Those counts, all for aggravated forgery, were felonies and could have resulted in prison time and significant fines for Toth.

Toth, a Republican, had sought the GOP nomination in the House District 143 race in 2022, but he withdrew before the state primary in June. Fellow Republican Ann Fredericks eventually became the party nominee and went on to win the seat in November, beating Democratic opponent Wes Davie.

How Toth's crime was discovered

According to Jonathan Wayne, the executive director of the state’s Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices, his staff spotted irregularities in the contributor signatures on the form Toth submitted in the spring of 2022 for Maine Clean Election Act (MCEA) funding.

“The Commission staff concluded that signatures submitted for at least 12 contributors were not genuine,” Wayne wrote in a memo summarizing the Toth case.

Wayne said his staff interviewed nine contributors, or their spouses or domestic partners. As a result, the staff determined the signatures on Toth’s forms for seven contributors were not authentic – that is, “someone had forged the contributors’ signatures on the forms,” Wayne wrote.

“Even more troublingly, it appeared that three of the people identified as contributors had not made a (qualifying contribution),” Wayne added.

Based on the commission’s investigation, Toth was denied MCEA funding in April 2022.

The commission brought its findings to the Office of the Maine Attorney General. From there, the AG investigated and successfully pursued an indictment of Toth.

How Maine Clean Election funds work

To qualify for public MCEA funds, candidates for the Maine House must collect qualifying contributions of $5 from at least 60 registered voters in the candidate’s district and submit them to the state by April 20 of the election year.

Those who contribute $5 can do so by check, cash, or an online payment. They also must sign a form affirming they made the contribution and did so with their personal money.

“The contributor’s signature on the form is important to the integrity of the program because it verifies that a $5 contribution was actually made in support of the candidate,” Wayne said in his memo.

Every election year, approximately 200 candidates for the Maine Legislature seek MCEA funding, according to Wayne. Each contribution and its supporting document is examined by staff members of the commission.

“In our experience, fraud is rare,” Wayne said. “Almost all candidates qualify the right way and follow the rules.”

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Sanford man pleads guilty to Maine Clean Elections fraud in campaign