His donation to Patrick, he said, was motivated by the governor’s support for a charity on whose board Maginn serves. That charity, One Family Inc., helps formerly homeless families and was founded by former Reebok chief executive Paul Fireman. It was Fireman who invited Maginn to the Patrick fund-raiser, a party that featured singer John Legend.
“Those of us that run the charity were asked to come and support’’ Patrick, Maginn said yesterday, noting that the governor “was supportive of our charity.’’
“I do a lot of charity because as a follower of Jesus, I believe that’s what Jesus would want me to do,’’ he added.
Maginn’s contribution has drawn little scrutiny until now because both his name and the name of his company had been misspelled on campaign finance documents, making them difficult to find.
Yesterday, he said he remembered the contribution and went looking for it when he was running for the GOP chairmanship and was already facing criticism for his earlier donation to Schumer.
But, he said, he could not find evidence of the Patrick contribution, apparently because of the misspelling.
“People were already criticizing me for the Schumer contribution,’’ Maginn said. “I wanted to make sure there was no other Democratic contributions I had made or were reported.’’
As for the Schumer donation, Maginn said he gave that because he agrees with the New York Democrat on certain policies governing trade with China and because it enabled him to leverage contributions to Romney.
He said he warned Republicans when he was running for the party chairmanship that he was sometimes called upon as a business leader and philanthropist to support politicians outside his party.
“As a CEO and philanthropist and major fund-raiser for the GOP, there are times, very rare, when I may be invited and feel compelled to go and support one of my friends who’s doing a fundraiser for Democrats,’’ he said.
However, he said he would no longer do so as chairman of the state GOP.
In 2010, Maginn also gave $500 to his party’s nominee, Charles D. Baker, records show.
