Ethics Commission to investigate Bobby Charles’ alleged ties to site attacking primary opponent

The Maine Ethics Commission agreed Wednesday morning to investigate whether Republican gubernatorial candidate Bobby Charles financed an attack website against one of his primary election opponents, Ben Midgley, without public disclosure as required by state law.

The timeline of this forthcoming probe is unclear but the decision to pursue it comes less than two weeks before the June 9 primary election, where seven GOP candidates are vying to secure their party’s nomination to replace outgoing Democratic Gov. Janet Mills. 

Midgley’s campaign manager, Lauren LePage, daughter of former Gov. Paul LePage, requested that the commission investigate the website, midgleyexposed.com, which has since been taken down but was published in late March. LePage pointed to a $50 campaign expenditure on March 26 to Harris Media for services at GoDaddy, which the website was registered with that same day. 

But Anna Mackin, attorney for the Charles campaign, said Wednesday that the campaign had no involvement and that that payment was for a different domain. 

In a signed affidavit submitted ahead of the meeting, the Charles campaign’s media consultant, Vincent Harris, confirmed that it did create two other negative websites, one against Midgley — therealbenmidgley.com — and the other against another candidate, Garrett Mason — therealgarrettmason.com — but purported that the campaign followed all required disclosure laws in doing so. But the affidavit stated the group had no involvement in midgleyexposed.com.

The commission will be parsing these specifics when making its determination. LePage also said the Midgley campaign felt compelled to request an investigation based on the broader context of how Charles has been campaigning. 

“This was a line of attack that has been uniquely attributed to the Charles campaign,” LePage said. 

Charles, who led early primary polls, has run a President Donald Trump-style shock and awe campaign, often bashing his opponents and relying heavily on social media and artificial intelligence. On the other hand, his opponents have banded together against him, calling him out for skipping debates and criticizing his campaign promises as too lofty.