Eastbayri.com

BARRINGTON — When he first considered running for local political office, Chad Mollica never imagined that his bid would one day end up costing him more than $3,000 in fines.

The Barrington resident ran twice for a seat on the Barrington School Committee, falling short of the needed votes in 2008 and 2010. The two unsuccessful campaigns resurfaced recently when Mr. Mollica, a Republican, learned that he owed the Rhode Island Board of Elections approximately $3,200 in fines; the figure increases $12 each day.

According to state officials, Mr. Mollica failed to file the required campaign finance reports following his 2010 bid for office. The missing reports led to a series of fines levied by the Board of Elections.

“I get it if I’m raising a million dollars, I get the fines,” said Mr. Mollica. “In this state, to see what these guys make ... the guys at the Statehouse, I get that. But then you see the people out in the little towns getting fined when they’re just trying to do some public service? I think that’s unbelievable.”

Mr. Mollica is not the only local political candidate who’s facing fines from the Board of Elections. Larry Signore, a Democrat who ran against incumbent David Bates for a Senate seat in 2008, owes $3,144 in fines after he failed to file campaign finance reports. Mr. Signore’s fines have been frozen since Jan. 2010 when the former candidate filed a notice of dissolution.

Jim Hasenfus also ran against and lost to Sen. Bates in 2010, but failed to submit the necessary finance reports after the election. He owed the state more than $2,400 as of late last month.

Statewide, current and former candidates, political action committees, town committees and other groups owe the state more than $1.1 million in fines.

Tired of waiting

In early January, months before candidates are required to file papers declaring their intentions to run for office, Sen. Bates had grown tired of waiting for Mr. Hasenfus to file a series of overdue campaign finance reports. The longtime Republican legislator said he has always filed his reports on time even though he finds the process irritating.

“It’s a pain,” he said, “but the rules are the rules.”

Sen. Bates, who alerted the Times to Mr. Hasenfus’s delinquent fine payments, said transparency is crucial in politics. He said it’s important people know how candidates are financing their campaigns.

“That’s what the laws are there for,” he said. “Everybody is supposed to be filing these reports.”

Mr. Hasenfus acknowledged that he failed to file the required campaign finance reports, but said there was nothing devious behind the miscue.

“I’m not running in 2012, so Dave’s timing in raising this is a little funny,” wrote Mr. Hasenfus in a Jan. 26 e-mail. “This was fifteen or so individual expense items that we didn’t have the data for right after the election, and we let it fall through the cracks. I filed the forms last Monday (Jan. 23), the Board lowered the fine to $1,175, and I paid it, out of my own pocket like you have to, the very next day.”

Mr. Hasenfus said more important than the missed filing deadlines might be the information included on his former opponent’s campaign reports.

“What’s more important? When you file the report or what it says?,” he wrote. “If Dave wants to talk campaign finance, he should release information showing how much of the money he raised for our race came from lobbyists or anyone else with an interest in senate bills within a couple years of the contribution. About two thirds of the $23,500 he raised doesn’t have any names attached to it, and he raised about 90 percent of that while the legislature was in session. Who’d it come from?”

Mr. Hasenfus received letters from the state office warning him about the overdue documents, said Rick Thornton, the director of campaign finance for the state. When the former candidate failed to heed the warning, the state began issuing fines. Every quarter that passed resulted in a fine increase.

Mr. Thornton said Mr. Hasenfus could have filed a notice of dissolution shortly after the election, which would have absolved him from filing any further campaign finance reports, but added that there was likely a good reason why the resident did not do that. He said that if Mr. Hasenfus had filed the notice he would not have been able to later collect on a $10,740 loan he made to his own campaign.

“His campaign owes him that,” Mr. Thornton said. “A notice of dissolution would cancel any loans.”

The campaign finance director for the state added that Mr. Hasenfus has faced fines from the Board of Elections in the past. He said the former Senate candidate and Barrington School Committee member had 14 previous violations, the first two dating back to 2004. Mr. Thornton said Mr. Hasenfus paid $676 in fines to cover the 14 prior violations; he said Mr. Hasenfus had appealed the fines and had them reduced.

“Running for office is an elective thing,” Mr. Thornton said. “Filing reports is not.”

Form-a-phobic

Mr. Mollica said his failure to file the required campaign finance reports was nothing more than an oversight.

“I have been ignoring the letters,” he said during a recent interview. “It was nothing illegal or illicit. ... I thought I owed around $75.

“It was silly. I just didn’t get to it. Then they started fining me. ... I have never opened one of them (certified letters). I am too busy running a business, employing people, trying to raise my family.”

Mr. Mollica, who called himself a form-a-phobic, said he stopped into the campaign finance office last year to address the overdue paperwork and was surprised to see how many people were actually employed by the department.

“Why is there an office that’s staffed year-round?” he said, questioning the need for the full-time status of the office. He left the Board of Elections without filing the reports.

Mr. Mollica also complained about the forms. He said he handles reams of paperwork with his own company, but found the state forms very confusing. He said he grew so frustrated with the paperwork that he eventually pushed it aside.

“I am not an idiot. The forms they have you fill out are illogical. They’re beyond stupid and I don’t deal with stupidity,” he said.

Mr. Mollica said he financed his campaign with his own personal funds, for the most part. He said he used some of the money raised by the town’s Republican committee.

“I didn’t raise a single penny from a single outside source, not one penny,” he said, adding that he feels like the fines are punishing him for trying to be a public servant and will likely scare others away from running for office.

Mr. Signore did not return a phone call for this story.