The Idaho Secretary of State’s office has made a preliminary determination that an amended campaign finance report from legislative candidate M.C. “Chick” Heileson appears to be in compliance with state law limiting contributions from related companies, but it will continue to look further into the matter.

Chief Deputy Secretary of State Tim Hurst said the office determined that two companies owned by eastern Idaho businessman Doyle Beck, both shown on the amended report has having each contributed $1,000 to Heileson’s campaign, narrowly miss the definition of being aggregate donations from a single donor. That’s because while Beck fully owns one of the two firms, Beco Construction Inc., he jointly owns the other, JB Construction, equally with a partner, Ryan Christianson. “So it doesn’t fit that exclusion of a majority stockholder contributing for more than one company,” Hurst said.

There are other ways the two firms could be related, including sharing board members or officers or having a parent-subsidiary relationship. Hurst said the Secretary of State’s office still plans to look into those after getting through the big rush of campaign-finance report filings this week, but for now, is preliminarily accepting the amended report.

A single donor, whether a business or an individual, can’t give more than $1,000 to a legislative candidate per primary or general election, under Idaho’s Sunshine Law.

Heileson’s original report showed six $1,000 donations from companies owned by Beck. After news reports Friday about the apparent Sunshine Law violation, Heileson filed the amended report late Friday, removing four of the six contributions.