A candidate for Oak Harbor mayor is accused of lacking transparency and possibly breaking public disclosure law when it comes to reporting details of donations he has received.
Shane Hoffmire, who denies he’s done anything wrong, has chosen to do “mini-reporting” of his mayoral race campaign finances. A candidate can do mini-reporting if he or she raises less than $7,000 and doesn’t receive more than $500 from any one contributor. With mini-reporting, a candidate doesn’t have to file contribution and expenditure reports with the Public Disclosure Commission but still must keep track of both.
But Ronnie Wright, who is challenging Hoffmire for mayor, said that Hoffmire clearly has raised more than the limit and is violating the law by not disclosing his donors. For his part, Wright reported receiving nearly $28,000 in donations as of Monday and has been regularly updating the list online.
Wright said he looked over Hoffmire’s donations prior to the primary and saw that he was running over the limit. Under state law, a candidate’s books of accounting must be available for inspection in the 10 days prior to a primary, general or special election.
Wright said he also asked to see copies of contribution checks, but Hoffmire still hasn’t shared them, another alleged violation of the law.
Hoffmire, a current member of the city council, steadfastly denies that his campaign accepted donations beyond the limit or that he broke the law. He explained that he chose the mini-reporting option because he didn’t think he would need to raise that much money for the election. The campaign, however, has turned out to be more hard-fought and expensive than he had expected.
Hoffmire concedes that he was close to the $7,000 limit prior to the primary, but he says he hasn’t accepted any donations since then.
Hoffmire said he was planning on switching to full reporting, but then his father offered to start a single election committee, which is called Friends of Shane Hoffmire for Mayor. Hoffmire said he was happy to allow his father to take over the task. The deadline for switching to full reporting has passed.
The committee is also doing mini-reporting, so it is not disclosing donors either. Hoffmire said the committee may be nearing its limit.
A spokesperson for the Public Disclosure Commission said it’s legal for a candidate and a separate political committee — or even multiple committees — to both do mini-reporting of donations in support of the candidate, as long as none exceeds the limit.
But the committee can only directly contribute $500 or the equivalent of in-kind donations to a candidate that is mini-reporting. The committee could spend beyond $500 in support of the candidate, but it would have to be independent expenditures. In that case, the committee would not be allowed to consult with the candidate.
Hoffmire said the committee is making independent expenditures but that he’s not consulting with his father or other committee members.
“I’ve been pleasantly surprised by some of the material I’ve seen,” he said.
