AUGUSTA — The state will continue its investigation of a pair of political action committees that supported an effort to bring a casino to Lewiston in 2011.

The Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices decided by unanimous vote Wednesday to dig deeper into a complaint filed by Dennis Bailey, a longtime opponent of casinos in Maine.

Jonathan Wayne, the commission’s executive director, said commissioners didn’t find evidence that Lewiston casino backers had broken campaign finance rules.

But they also didn’t find clear evidence that the casino campaign acted in a wholly ethical manner, he said.

“They didn’t find that there was no violation, but they asked us to take some further investigatory steps to determine whether there was a violation or not,” Wayne said.

Voters statewide overwhelmingly turned down the Lewiston casino effort in November, with only 37 percent of voters supporting the effort.

Bailey, of CasinosNO!, filed the complaint against Green Jobs for ME and the People of Lewiston Auburn Committee on Dec. 23, arguing that the groups did not correctly disclose all of their donations or expenditures.

At stake is some $400,000 in campaign contributions.

“There were just too many questions,” Bailey said of the campaign finance reports filed by the two pro-casino PACs. “You don’t know where the money went. You know something is happening here, but you just don’t know what it is.” 

Bailey said he didn’t know whether the PACs broke any laws, but it remained unclear who bankrolled the campaign, what that money was spent on and who spent it.

At the heart of Bailey’s questions is a company called Dome Messaging, which reportedly conducted polls and made advertising purchases for the Lewiston casino campaign. Dome, according to campaign finance reports, provided services to both PACs.

The only contact information for Dome Messaging is an email address on its website. The mailing address for the company, listed on campaign finance reports, is a mailbox rental store in Arlington, Va.

Workers at the store told the Sun Journal in October that they could not disclose who rented the box. Multiple messages sent to the company from the Sun Journal via email had not been answered.

Peter Robinson, treasurer of the Green Jobs for Maine PAC and the person responsible for filing the campaign finance reports, said Wednesday he did not know who the individual or individuals behind Dome were. Robinson said he received invoices from Dome that he used to file the required expenditure reports with the state but that those invoices never included the name of an individual.

Robinson, who, like Bailey, attended the ethics commission meeting on Wednesday, said the money spent on the campaign was spent on what he said it was. Television and radio advertising were broadcast; he said that’s proof Dome did its job. Robinson said he wasn’t sure what more the commission was looking for.

“They want to ask for more information,” he said. “They had an opportunity to just say they were not going to follow up at all or they were. They didn’t fine us or anything like that, but they have a few more questions.”

Also in question is whether a Georgia-based company named GTSource donated to the campaign or whether it paid Dome directly for service Dome provided to the campaign. Wayne said Wednesday that GTSource so far had not cooperated with the commission’s requests for information.

Dwayne Graham, who was identified as the president and CEO of GTSource, told the Sun Journal in October that his company was helping to fund the pro-casino campaign in Lewiston.

Wayne said the commission would likely be updated on the staff’s investigation at its next meeting in February.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

sthistle@sunjournal.com