Campaign finance offender lost seven bids for office but wins mercy from elections panel

A perennial candidate for state and local office will be the first offender of state campaign finance requirements to have his fines reduced.

The Rhode Island Board of Elections on Tuesday voted 3-0 to slash financial penalties owed by former candidate Daniel Grzych by nearly 90%. Grzych, a Providence resident, ran unsuccessfully as an independent for seven state and local races spanning 2002 to 2014. He previously owed more than $71,000 in fines to the state elections board for submitting late the regular financial reports required during his time as a candidate. 

Now, he’ll owe just $6,600 — three times the amount he spent over the five campaigns during which he missed reporting deadlines. The board’s decision Tuesday marks the first time using newly enacted regulation change giving the appointed elections panel more leeway to reduce fines for offenders. The rule change adopted in 2023 relies on a formula based on the number of violations to cap fines at a lower amount while letting the elections board close campaign finance accounts so fees don’t keep accruing. 

Under the formula included in the updated state rules, Grzych could have had his fine reduced to about $28,000, said Ric Thornton, the board’s campaign finance director.

However, given Grzych’s actual spending during his span of failed candidacies — amounting to $2,200, all of which was self-funded — Ray Marcaccio, the board’s attorney suggested an even lower fine.

“The purpose for the regulation is to make sure whatever we do by way of fine and penalty is proportional to the offense that occurred,” Marcaccio said. “The way the statute was written, a lot of these daily amounts continue to accrue almost exponentially.”

Indeed, 93% of the $6.1 million in unpaid financial penalties for late or missing campaign reports as of September come from just 15% of the offenders, with many of the top violators unable to pay, or unreachable, according to data provided by Thornton. Grzych once held the dubious distinction of a spot in the top 10 list of violators with the largest outstanding fines, according to an Associated Press story in 2015. As of September 2023, Grzych dropped to the 25th ranking, though the amount of overdue penalties was unchanged.

In an only-in-Rhode Island moment, former Rep. John DeSimone, who defeated Grzych in the 2012 Democratic primary for the House District 5 seat, is now the attorney for his former political opponent. The pair appeared together before the Board of Elections to explain the circumstances that led to Grzych’s late filings and subsequent lack of response to notices about his overdue payments.

“He never had a sophisticated campaign,” DeSimone said. “As I recall, he had a dump truck that he put signs on and drove it around. That was the extent of his campaign.”

Grzych also explained how personal health issues as well as responsibilities caring for ailing family members swallowed his attention over the ensuing 20 years, making him unaware of the overdue fines for late campaign finance reports, despite the many certified mail notices he was sent.

“I don’t want to say I was dumb, but I didn’t know all the facts,” Grzych, 71 said. “ I lost track of a lot of things over the last 20-something years.”

He is also facing foreclosure for the Providence home he owns with two other people, after they stopped making payments on their $170,000 mortgage loan beginning in 2020, according to the complaint filed by HSBC Bank in June 2023 in Providence County Superior Court. As of Tuesday, $230,000 remains on the mortgage payment, though a pending agreement selling the property for $320,000 is expected to close soon, John DeSimone said.

The Rhode Island Board of Elections, which is named as a party of interest in the case because it has a lien on the property stemming from Grzych’s outstanding fines, has spent more than $1,000 on court and legal fees as well as certified mail notifying Grzych of his outstanding fines, Thornton said.

Board member Louis DeSimone abstained from the vote due to the appearance of conflict of interest; he is John DeSimone’s first cousin, though he said they have no economic ties. Board members Diane Mederos, Randall Jackvony and Michael Connors were absent from the meeting.

Prior to the vote, the board also met behind closed doors for 45 minutes to discuss the foreclosure case, but did not take any votes shared during the public session.