Luke Bronin hauls in Lobbyist cash, generates multiple violations of CT Campaign Finance Law
Having spent in excess of $1 million on his initial run for public office, political newcomer and Greenwich native Luke Bronin is expecting the voters of Hartford to make him their next mayor on Election Day – Tuesday, November 3, 2015.
But as Bronin’s campaign finance reports indicate, in addition to running the most expensive mayoral campaign in Connecticut history, Bronin “wins the award” for collecting more money from state lobbyists than any other mayoral candidate in Connecticut.
In a truly unprecedented maneuver, as of nearly a month ago, Governor Malloy protégée Luke Bronin had already collected more than $25,000 from a total of about 80 registered state lobbyists.
Bronin’s list of lobbyist fans include John Rowland’s former chief of staff, Rowland’s former campaign manager and a so-called “social justice” lobbyist who has become one of Dannel Malloy’s biggest apologists. As of the last campaign finance report, almost every major lobbyist had donated to Bronin with a number of them donating more than once.
Bronin’s strategy of collecting campaign donations from those who are paid to influence public policy will come with a price.
Connecticut State Law requires all political candidates to identify any contributor who is a lobbyist, lobbyist spouse or dependent child of a lobbyist on their campaign finance reports. However, of the nearly 80 donations Bronin has received from lobbyists or their families, only 17 (or about 20 percent) are properly identified.
The utter failure to identify contributions received from lobbyists will undoubtedly generate Luke Bronin hauls in Lobbyist cash, generates multiple violations of CT Campaign Finance Law - Wait What?:
