Matt Dunlap is running as a Democrat for Maine's 2nd Congressional District, claiming to have cut government waste and improved bureaucratic efficiency as Maine secretary of state and state auditor.
His track record tells a different story. After more than two decades in office, Dunlap leaves in his wake an illegal-alien armed robbery scandal, a federal voting lawsuit, a string of missed deadlines, and even flunked exams.
'He’ll be held accountable for his failures at the ballot box in November.'
During his first tenure as secretary of state from 2004 to 2011, Dunlap's subordinate Robert O’Connell helped an illegal alien acquire the identification necessary to buy a gun. That alien later used that gun to commit armed robbery.
Back in March 2006, O’Connell, then the Maine DMV’s director of licensing services, met with Irish native Niall Clarke at a Boston bar and discussed getting him a driver’s license in Maine. O'Connell personally expedited Clarke’s application.
The Irishman's visa expired that April. In October 2006, Clarke used a gun purchased with his Maine ID to rob a Bangor Bank of America, making off with over $11,000 before being apprehended by police.
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Dunlap declined to discipline O'Connell after an investigation by Dunlap's office later that year determined that O'Connell had not broken any laws or state policies."It probably would be the easy thing to put Bob under suspension, throw him under the bus, but the fact is we have to let the process work," Dunlap said at the time.
Clarke was sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison and later deported.
That same year, Dunlap also ran afoul of the federal government. In July 2006, the Department of Justice sued the State of Maine and Dunlap for allegedly neglecting voter registration list maintenance and disability access upgrades for polling places.
Maine had already received $17 million from the federal government to aid in these tasks when the suit was filed. Dunlap blamed a truant vendor for the delay. Though both parties later agreed to resolve the issue via consent decree, the oversight raised concerns about Dunlap’s ability to manage public wealth.
The scandals didn't stop there.
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In 2007, local news outlet WGME strolled onto the State Lottery Commission’s property and scooped up numerous discarded records, including citizens’ names, Social Security numbers, birthdates, and other sensitive data. There was enough material there for mass identity theft, according to the outlet.
Despite the alarming exposure of citizens' private information, Dunlap said about the trashed documents, “I think that’s incredibly healthy,” arguing that 10 years earlier, people would have wondered, "What’s the big deal about Social Security numbers in the trash?"
The incident resulted in changes to state document disposal policy, such as mandatory shredding and contracted waste disposal.
Dunlap faced another lawsuit in 2009 after he failed to certify a people’s veto petition that aimed to repeal Democrat then-Governor John Baldacci’s sales tax expansion. Activist group Still Fed Up with Taxes sued after Dunlap’s office blew past the October 13 deadline for signature verification.
Dunlap ultimately relented, and the measure reached the June 2010 ballot. The measure passed, and a judge later ruled that Dunlap’s office had no authority to miss the deadline.
“[Dunlap] said his staff was overworked, neglecting to mention that, instead of checking off names, he’d spent a week of that crunch time at a conference in Kentucky,” the Portland Press Herald reported in 2012.
Dunlap tried to leave his secretary of state scandals behind him in 2021, switching gears to become state auditor. Dunlap admitted he was “utterly unqualified” for the state auditor role, just as he was when he ran for secretary of state in 2004, according to Bangor Daily News.
Dunlap later failed two accounting exams required for the auditor position and stepped down in October 2021. Then-state Senate President Troy Jackson — whom Democrats recently substituted for Graham Platner as their U.S. Senate candidate to run against longtime Sen. Susan Collins (R) — appointed Dunlap to the auditor role in November 2022 after he eventually passed his exams.
"Whether it’s failing to protect Mainers' sensitive information, hold bad actors accountable, or simply do his job properly, incompetent radical Matt Dunlap proved to Mainers time and again that he is not a trustworthy steward of their tax dollars,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokeswoman Maureen O’Toole told Blaze News. “He’ll be held accountable for his failures at the ballot box in November."
Dunlap did not respond to a request for comment. O'Connell and Clarke could not be reached for comment. Dunlap will square off against former Republican Maine Governor Paul LePage in November's midterm elections.
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