Augusta, Maine — New reporting from the Maine Monitor puts Republican gubernatorial candidate Bobby Charles on blast for failing to produce a full personal financial disclosure – despite falsely claiming he did. Hannah Pingree shared her personal financial disclosure with the Monitor back in July, when asked. Bobby Charles refused to do so.

Then months later, after repeated pressure from the Maine Democratic Party to release the files, Charles claimed to have done so. But the Maine Monitor clarifies that Charles only shared SOME personal financial information to WMTW, “but it was not the full slate of information that has to be included in official state financial disclosure filings.”

The Monitor adds that Bobby Charles campaign manager Dale Crafts Jr. emailed saying “We can get this for you next week” on Sept 23rd. But their campaign failed to do so.

From the Monitor:

“The Republican nominee for governor is demanding transparency from other candidates, while his campaign has not sent his personal financial disclosure to The Maine Monitor as it said it would.”

This is a pattern of shady behavior from Charles and his operation, which includes him deleting pro-Trump and MAGA content from his campaign website after the primary, saying he wouldn’t take lobbyist donations while taking lobbyist donations, violating campaign finance laws, and his super PAC propping up fake Independent candidate Rick Bennett.

Maine Monitor: Bobby Charles said he is transparent but hasn’t released a full personal financial statement
By Matt Junker

• Republican Bobby Charles claims he has released his personal financial disclosure as he continues his campaign to be Maine’s next governor.

• But in reality, Charles’ campaign has declined to provide the same level of information that is typically included in a financial disclosure statement for state officials. The campaign said two weeks ago that it would send his financial disclosure to The Maine Monitor but never did.

• Personal financial statements are required for Maine lawmakers, legislative candidates and top executive branch officials as a way to help identify potential conflicts of interest. In an apparent loophole of Maine campaign finance law, however, the statements are not required for candidates running for governor.

• The Maine Ethics Commission is proposing that state lawmakers address the discrepancy after The Monitor and other media outlets asked about it.

• The Charles campaign has not provided details or answered questions about the income sources of his immediate family at the same time that he is using family financial connections as a political attack against one of his opponents. And after challenging his opponents to forgo state lobbyist money, his campaign wouldn’t clarify whether he still owns or generates income from his federally focused lobbying and consulting firm.  

• The Charles campaign provided some personal financial information to Maine-based TV station WMTW, including his taxable income and his property value for 2025, which the station published last week. But that report did not include certain financial details for Charles, including information about any debt and any income from his spouse. Charles’ campaign did not answer questions from The Monitor about those missing details.

• Charles took to social media after the WMTW story published on Oct. 1 and credited himself for transparency.

• “My financial disclosure: released. Epstein files: I said release them. Corruption in both parties: I’ve called it out,” Charles said on Facebook that day.

• In a comment responding to his own post, Charles added, “I am transparent and will continue to be.”

• Charles did not mention that his campaign has declined to provide his full personal financial information to The Monitor since this summer.

• The Monitor started asking Charles and the two other candidates on the ballot for Maine governor, Democrat Hannah Pingree and independent Rick Bennett, about their personal finances in early July.

• Candidates for governor are not legally required to provide their personal financial information until the race is over, and only the winning candidate has to submit it to the ethics commission. So The Monitor asked them all to provide it voluntarily.

• Pingree’s campaign sent The Monitor her personal financial details in a format that matched the various requirements in state statute for top executive branch employees. Pingree had not previously had to file a personal financial disclosure statement despite serving for several years as the head of Gov. Janet Mills’ Office of Policy Innovation and the Future. She said she would support updating state law to make sure her former role falls under the financial disclosure requirement.

• Pingree had no recent individual sources of income aside from her state job. The information provided by her campaign showed that she and her husband derive rental income from a property they own together, and they generate interest and capital gains income from assets managed by The Vanguard Group. Her husband has individual income from his role as executive director of North Haven Sustainable Housing and multiple ventures as a documentary filmmaker.  

• One liability, a home mortgage, was listed in Pingree’s financial statement provided to The Monitor.

• Charles was the only one of the three major candidates for governor who declined to share his personal financial information in July, saying that he did “not see the value of adding personal finances to the campaign discussion at this time.”

• More recently, he appeared to see value in highlighting the personal finances of Pingree and her family.

• Given that Charles made personal finances and family connections a point of attack in the campaign, and because the Maine Ethics Commission is poised to recommend legislation that would require gubernatorial candidates to file personal financial statements in the future, The Monitor reached out to Charles in late September to see if his previous stance on not releasing his personal financial information had changed.  

• “Thanks for following up. Bobby does plan to release his personal financial disclosure,” said Charles’ campaign manager, Dale Crafts Jr., in a Sept. 23 email. “We can get this for you next week.”

• However, the Charles campaign never sent a financial disclosure to The Monitor. The campaign did send some financial information to WMTW, but it was not the full slate of information that has to be included in official state financial disclosure filings.

• The Monitor asked the campaign five times for his financial disclosure information over seven days. In addition to not providing it, the campaign did not answer questions from The Monitor about whether Charles has any debts or liabilities from the previous calendar year, if he currently owns or generates income from his lobbying firm, or why the information in the WMTW story did not include income sources for his immediate family.