HARTFORD — The Connecticut Democratic Party and State Elections Enforcement Commission are settling a case involving Democratic Gov. Dan Malloy’s 2014 re-election campaign.
The party has agreed to make a $325,000 payment to end the dispute over whether it illegally spent money from a federal account on mailers to benefit Malloy, who was participating in the state’s public campaign financing program. The federal account can accept political contributions from state contractors, unlike the party’s state account.
The commission voted 2-1 in favor of the settlement on Wednesday. The agreement comes as a superior court judge was expected to decide whether to compel the Democrats to comply with the commission’s investigative subpoena and turn over certain documents.
Democratic Party Executive Director Michael Mandell released a statement on the settlement which said, in part:
This is a positive step forward for the Democratic Party and, more importantly, the state of Connecticut. The voluntary agreement we have entered into will clarify a fundamental legal question that we raised and pursued in order to resolve a conflicting intersection between state and federal law, and it will help ensure the continued viability of the Citizens’ Election Program going forward. We have always championed clean elections in Connecticut and will continue to do so. We hope that this agreement with the SEEC will serve as a model and that the Republican Party will join in our commitment to preserving the Citizens’ Election Program.
State GOP Chairman JR Romano says the Democrats have “gotten away with illegal campaign spending.”
State House Republican Leader Themis Kalides also released a damning statement, saying, in part:
Gov. Malloy and his fellow Democrats concocted a scheme to violate the spirit and letter of the state’s campaign finance laws that they pushed so hard to put in place, and they thought they could get away with. So what if they got caught, they said, at worst they would have to pay a fine after the election. They can call it whatever they want but the $325,000 fine is unprecedented and proves the seriousness of this violation of the law.
Here is the full Malloy campaign complaint that was filed in March 2015.
