The campaign of gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage is downplaying reports of his wife's apparent tax problems in Florida as just another smear campaign by Democratic operatives. The campaign admits that his wife received permanent-resident tax exemptions last year on homes in both Maine and Florida in violation of laws in both states, but insists that it was just a simple mistake that's in the process of being corrected.

The story was first reported by MaineToday Media, which publishes the Portland Press Herald, Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel. It detailed how Ann and Paul LePage were able to reap tax benefits in Maine and Florida by claiming homestead exemptions in both states.

GOP officials acknowledge that that apparent violation occurred, but minimize its importance. LePage could not be reached for comment, but campaign spokesman Brent Littlefield did respond. "This is just as it was presented, as a clerical error," Littlefield says. "It's going to be corrected, it's very minor, but I'm sure they're looking to hang their hat on anything that they can find that they can dig up and feed to try to attack Paul LePage."

"They" in this case are what Littlefield describes as Democrats working for party candidate Libby Mitchell. "I know that the Democrats working for Libby Mitchell that are trying to do everything that they possibly can to attack Paul, would love to attack Paul and claim that he has not done right by taxes, or anything else that they could possibly dream up, and I'm well aware of it," Littlefield says.

According to the Maine Today Media report, Ann and Paul LePage purchased a home in Waterville in 1995. LePage then took his name off the deed the following year. The LePages then received tax benefits under Maine's Homestead Exemption program, since the home was their primary residence.

In 2008, Ann LePage became a resident of Florida and obtained a Florida driver's license while her husband remained a Maine resident. She purchased a home in Ormond Beach, Florida, and then allegedly claimed homestead tax benefits in both by declaring both homes as her primary residence.

The claims, according to the report, resulted in a reduction in the LePage's total tax bill in both states by about $1,700. "Paul LePage didn't speak to the press for a month following his last sort of gasser, or a little scandal -- I think he does need to address it," says Arden Manning, the chairman of the Democratic Victory 2010 Campaign.

Manning says GOP efforts to disassociate LePage from assets that he and his wife hold as community property do not pass the straight face test. "This is about Paul LePage and his run for governor. He lives in his house in Waterville, he's positioned himself as a fiscal conservative, he's railed against people that he says are gaming the tax system, people he says that are gaming the welfare system, and it turns out that he himself is gaming the tax system."

Concerns about voter reaction to the LePage's tax problems could potentially signal problems ahead for GOP candidate, who has made tax fairness a major theme in his campaign, according to Amy Fried, a University of Maine political science professor.

"Where it could have an impact is if it undermines one of the advantages that LePage has, which is his biography and his overall character, his presentation of himself as being very straightforward and honest," Fried says.

GOP spokesman Lance Dutson disagrees. He says the story was peddled to MaineToday Media by the Maine Democratic Party and represents a new low in Maine journalism.

"The fact that on the same time that we see Paul LePage extend his lead to 14 points in the polls, we see the Democrat attack machine coming out and doing something that in Maine for a long time I think we prided ourselves in staying away from, which is attacking the family of a candidate, and I think that it's a sign of desperation on the part of Democrat Libby Mitchell," Dutson says.

LePage has set up meetings next week with reporters in Portland, Augusta and Bangor to discuss a major new policy agency, and questions about the couple's tax problem are likely to persist.