Luke Bronin breaking the law with illegal corporate in-kind contributions
If elected Hartford Connecticut’s s next mayor, Greenwich native Luke Bronin says he’ll successfully plow the streets, solve the city’s crime problems and provide jobs for the residents of Connecticut’s poorest city.
In order to persuade the voters of Hartford to dump the only big city Puerto Rican mayor in the 50 States, Bronin has raised a record breaking amount of money. Nearly a third of his campaign funds come from out-of-state donors and an additional $55,000 plus are from residents of his hometown of Greenwich.
But his 5 to 1 cash-on-hand advantage isn’t enough for the golden boy.
Among a series of questionable campaign finance issues that show up in his campaign finance reports is the fact that Bronin is breaking Connecticut law by accepting a massive in-kind contribution from Stu Loeser & Company, a New York based public relations firm.
Andrew Doba works as Bronin’s spokesperson and public relations flack. He is also an employee of Stu Loeser & Company. Bronin’s press releases are sent using Doba’s work email, andrew@stuloeser.com. It is the same email address found for Doba on the Stu Loeser & Company website and the same email address Doba uses to communicate with reporters about his other clients.
After working as Governor Dannel Malloy’s spokesperson for past two years, Doba left state employment earlier this year to join Stu Loeser & Company.
On his corporate website, Stu Loeser, who was New York City Mayor Bloomberg’s press’s secretary, describes himself by stating,
“Stu now puts these skills to use for some of the most prominent technology companies, Fortune 100 corporations, thriving start-ups and high net-worth individuals around the world.[…]Stu has been profiled as the “city’s foremost practitioner of the dark art known as opposition research” … Earlier in his career, he served as U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer’s Communications Director and worked on the Clinton/Gore and Gore/Lieberman presidential campaigns.
As for Doba, Loeser.com writes;
Andrew is a veteran communications operative with nearly a decade of experience in city and state government.As the chief spokesman for Governor Malloy in Connecticut, Andrew was the architect of earned media campaigns advancing the Governor’s economic and public policy priorities…He directly managed or had oversight of nearly 100 people in 30 state agencies, quasi-public entities and other cabinet level positions.
As an aside, who knew the Governor’s press secretary had management and oversight responsibility for 100 people in 30 agencies.
But back on the issue of breaking state law, not only are Bronin’s press releases sent out by Doba, and Doba is by Bronin’s side at almost every public event, but Bronin’s Twitter account is dedicated to helping Bronin and Doba’s other corporate clients including the corporate funded charter school advocacy group “Save our Schools” and the UBER corporation.
Although Doba has been working for Bronin for months, Bronin’s campaign has failed to make and report appropriate expenditures to Stu Loeser & Company for Doba’s work, meaning Bronin is accepting an illegal campaign contribution from a corporate entity, a major violation of Connecticut law that would undoubtedly lead to a fine and other potential penalties if investigated by the State Elections Enforcement Commission.
Why would Luke Bronin think he is above the law?
Perhaps is it is because he spent the last two years working as Governor Dannel Malloy whose 2014 campaign intentionally and flagrantly violated Connecticut’s campaign finance laws and continues to try and derail an investigation in Malloy’s political fundraising violations.
The following are just a few examples of Andrew Doba’s use of his Twitter page to promote his corporate clients, including Luke Bronin for Mayor.
Andrew Doba @AndrewDoba Outrageous that @segarra2015 needs a hand delivered invite to talk with #Hartford residents about gun violencehttp://cour.at/1IQNKpA
Andrew Doba @AndrewDoba .@segarra2015 my job would be easier if you told the truth.
Andrew Doba @AndrewDoba With strong push from @GovMalloyOffice, Leg. made the right call in meeting its financial commitment to charter schools
Andrew Doba @AndrewDoba Thank you to our state leaders who showed a strong commitment to ensuring access to great school #ForEveryChild.
Andrew Doba @AndrewDoba Awesome video from the #SaveOurSchools rally#ForEveryChildCT http://bit.ly/1Fqu9gr
Andrew Doba @AndrewDoba FYI – @Uber hearing being moved to 2E because so many Uber driver partners came out to show their support
Andrew Doba @AndrewDoba Thanks! RT@StamfordiCenter: We welcome our newest coworker, @AndrewDoba of Stu Loeser & Co. http://ow.ly/Ino0Q
Andrew Doba @AndrewDoba New website (http://stuloeser.com ) AND new flack? Congrats to @AndrewDoba + thanks @mikeallen for nod in Playbook:http://www.politico.com/playbook/0115/playbook16920.html …
For more about the Bronin Campaign’s attempt to buy Hartford see;Luke Bronin breaking the law with illegal corporate in-kind contributions - Wait What?:
