On Sunday, New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan, a Democrat locked in a close battle with incumbent GOP. Sen. Kelly Ayotte for Ayotte’s seat, said she will return campaign donations from partners of a Boston law firm after a damning report in the Boston Globe.

The Globe’s report, for which it collaborated with the Center for Responsive Politics, detailed how partners of Thornton Law Firm and a wife of one of the partners had donated nearly $1.6 million to Democratic Party fund-raising committees and politicians from 2010 to 2014, but the partners were compensated $1.4 million in “bonuses.” To make the issue even more clear, 280 contributions were accompanied matched bonuses that were paid within 10 days.

On Sunday, Aaron Jacobs, communications director for Maggie Hassan for New Hampshire, stated that Hassan’s campaign was unaware of the “practices inside this firm … We assume that as the Globe reported, none of the other Republican or Democratic candidates who received contributions knew either. We will be returning the contributions from this firm.”

Jacobs added that Hassan will return $51,000: $38,000 from her Senate campaign and $13,000 from the state committee from her gubernatorial campaign.

Earlier on Sunday, Ayotte’s spokeswoman, Liz Johnson, called the actions of the partners a “troubling pattern that raises serious ethical and legal questions.”

The Thornton law firm protested that the program was reviewed by outside lawyers and complied with applicable laws. Former federal prosecutor Brian Kelly, hired by Thornton, told the Globe the “bonuses” were a misnomer because they were deducted from the lawyers’ equity in the firm. He cited a statement from Michael Thornton, chairman of the firm, asserting “an error made internally” led to the payments being called bonuses.

Wisconsin Senate candidate Russ Feingold also received $45,000 from firm partners; the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported he would return it.