Donald Sussman

Previous coverage: Fed up with taxes advertises in beer aisle; Fed up with Taxes: PAC report highlights; Fed up with taxes coalition launches signature campaign; Health Coverage for Maine launches campaign; The opponents to the people’s veto: PAC report highlights

Fed Up with Taxes, the group urging a People’s Veto of the recently passed beer, wine and soda taxes, turned in 90,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s office today.

This is far more than the 55,087 signatures needed for the veto. Newell Auger, chairman of the group, said municipal clerks have validated 80 percent of the signatures.

The signatures were turned in two days before the July 17 deadline.

Ethan Strimling’s campaign has returned a $250 donation from a Connecticut hedge fund, saying it was given as a “dirty trick” by one of Chellie Pingree’s supporters.

Pingree’s campaign said they know nothing of the donation, and public records searches show the fund’s founder had donated to Strimling’s interests in the past.

Strimling campaign manager Corey Hascall said the donation from Selwyn Sussman of Rye Brook, New York came after the campaign sent out a fundraising solicitation that criticized Pingree for taking money from employees of Paloma Partners, a hedge fund based in Greenwich, Ct.