UPDATED 4:45 p.m.

   JEFFERSON CITY – Gov. Matt Blunt’s campaign fund-raising committee has agreed to pay a $15,000 fine for violations of campaign finance laws over the last four years.

   In a statement issued Friday, Blunt’s campaign acknowledged the fine, but insisted that the campaign had done nothing wrong and agreed to pay it simply to settle the dispute.

   Spokesman John Hancock labeled the investigations a witch hunt inspired by the Missouri Democratic Party and an out-of-control state Ethics Commission. He said the dispute boiled down to a “debate about accounting practices and interpretation of notoriously vague and ambiguous campaign finance statutes.”

   But Democratic Party officials said the fine, from an Ethics Commission known for lax enforcement, showed just how egregious the violations were.

   “This is a glaring example of why we need to restore integrity to the governor’s office by electing someone with different priorities and a different way of doing business than Matt Blunt,” party spokesman Jack Cardetti said.

   Hancock, however, insisted that the entire investigation was unfair and the fine was a minor inconvenience.

   “That we have settled a three-year case for the small sum of $15,000 tells you what the agency thinks of the case, which is ‘not much.’” Hancock said in the statement. “That we complied with the law remains our position, the same as on day one, three years ago. The two sides made an agreement that will enable us to move forward and to expose the lawlessness and abuse of power that was carried out by the Missouri Ethics Commission members and staff.”

   Joe Carroll, the Ethics Commission’s director of campaign finance, called the fine significant, noting that most violations result in fines of $1,000 to $2,000.

   The fine settles several issues, including Blunt’s use throughout his 2004 campaign of a motor home owned by Mike Kehoe, an auto dealer from mid-Missouri.

   It also settled accusations that Blunt’s campaign accepted more than $100,000 in contributions that exceeded limits in state law and the campaign’s handling of a nearly $39,000 payment from the Republican National Committee.

   Democrats said use of the motor home amounted to an illegal contribution that far exceeded the maximum contribution allowed under state law.

   The Blunt campaign was never billed for the use of Kehoe’s motor home throughout the 2004 election campaign. But Hancock maintained that it was legal because the campaign paid as soon as an invoice was received in 2005, months after the Democrats filed their complaint.

   The Blunt campaign disclosed in July 2005 that it paid $6,159 to Kehoe's Ford dealership for mileage and repairs to cover damage incurred during the campaign. Kehoe has said he delayed mailing the invoice until all repairs had been completed.   But Democrats said Blunt's campaign not only failed to report the use of the bus, but also understated the value of the bus by about two thirds of the market value.

   “This is the worst kind of campaign violation,” Cardetti said at the time. “Matt Blunt and the Republicans have conspired to keep this illegal in-kind contribution hidden.”

    The agreement also settled a complaint filed by the Ethics Commission, whose auditors found that 106 donors gave Blunt’s  campaign contributions that exceeded the limits in state law by a total of $101,060, Blunt’s campaign said.  

   And the agreement settled allegations that a $38,982 payment from the Republican National Committee was an illegal contribution that exceeded state limits. Hancock said the payment was a partial refund of payments for travel by President Bush to campaign on Blunt’s behalf. The refund should have been deposited in Blunt’s 2004 campaign account, not Blunt’s 2008 campaign, Hancock said.

   Hancock said the parties agreed that ‘Matt Blunt did not have any direct knowledge of any of the matters” in the dispute and that Blunt “understood and believed that all such reports were filed in full compliance with the law.”

   Cardetti scoffed at that assertion.

   “Matt Blunt didn’t know he was riding on Mike Kehoe’s bus?” Cardetti said. “That’s pretty far-fetched. Come on, John.”

   Hancock said the staff-initiated portion of the audit was an abuse of discretion and probably unlawful. The audits, he said, found that all contributions were reported in a timely way. Blunt’s campaign was caught up in “retroactively changing the campaign accounting rules,” he said.

   “The campaign would rather refund these amounts than pay lawyers and accountants to engage in a further debate with the Ethics Commission over the nuisance of its campaign finance accounting rules,” Hancock said.

   Democrats said it was the first time that the Ethics Commission had pursued a complaint against a sitting governor since the agency was formed in 1993.

   The Ethics Commission refused to provide a copy of the 20-page agreement. Executive Director Bob Connor said the commission’s policy is to wait three days before allowing public access to actions of the commission to give the parties a chance to receive an executed copy.

   The state Sunshine law requires public agencies to provide documents “as soon as possible, but in no event later than the end of the third business day” after the request. Connor would not say that it was impossible to provide the documents. Rather, he said, the delay “was a policy we’ve used and everybody has accepted.”