Easton resident Robert Natt has refiled a complaint with the State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC) alleging the local conservative group Citizens for Responsible Government (CRG) disregarded state election laws that govern the activities of political action committees during the November 2021 election.
The SEEC’s initial investigation into Natt’s November 2021 complaint against CRG found the local activist group violated several campaign finance laws but dismissed the case when its treasurer, June Logie, failed to sign an agreement and pay a $200 fine within the one year time period per the statutory requirement.
In its final ruling, the SEEC stated that Natt’s complaint was dismissed not because the commission didn’t find any wrongdoing, but because the one year deadline to resolve the case had passed. The commission also stated that the complaint can be “re-opened by future commission action.” The commission has one year to rule on the refiled complaint.
Natt said he decided to refile his complaint because he wants to hold CRG accountable for what he says were false claims in the mailers the group sent out residents in Easton during the 2021 municipal election.
“It’s important to continue to hold CRG accountable and to ensure that accurate information is disseminated to the public during elections,” Natt said.
Logie’s group calls itself the oldest PAC in the state on its website EastonEye.org, and for years has injected itself in local issues by mailing political and education-related pamphlets to all Easton residents.
Logie did not respond to the Easton Courier’s request to comment for this story.
Natt’s initial complaint filed in November 2021 asked the commission to investigate CRG’s political mailers, its use of a GoFundMe page to collect donations, and its filing of financial disclosure statements. The case remained before the commission for almost a year until it reported in November 2022 that the results of its investigation found several of the claims made in Natt’s complaint to be valid.
According to its final report, the commission found that Logie violated state statutes by failing to adequately report expenditures, by not collecting required donor information and by failing to file timely campaign finance disclosure statements.
At its Nov. 2, 2022 meeting the SEEC reported that Logie had agreed to sign a consent order to comply with campaign finance laws and pay a $200 fine for her violations. The commission gave her 10 days to do both according to the Nov. 2 meeting. When she failed to do both the commission had to dismiss the complaint because it had not be resolved in a one year period.
Natt’s refiled complaint accuses CRG of the same state elections law violations: failure to include required disclaimers (attributions) on expenditures that – if not made independently – constitute contributions, failure to file required campaign finance disclosure statements and accepting unlawful (possibly excessive) contributions from prohibited sources and failing to collect donor/contributor information.
“Since the SEEC’s investigative work has already been completed, I am hopeful that this time CRG will not be able to run out the clock and CRG will be held responsible,” said Natt.
