Foley Is Right, Fedele Should Return Bonus.
Tom Foley speaks with some authority on the challenges and limits of making money on a failing enterprise. Michael Fedele ought to pay heed to Foley’s call for Fedele to return the unconstitutional public campaign finance bonus Fedele received. The lieutenant governor, who’s lagging far behind Foley in August 10th primary polls, claimed an extra $930,000 in taxpayer funds for his campaign just before a federal appellate court found the supplemental grants provision of the state’s campaign finance law unconstitutional. It was nearly simultaneous.
Foley, who’s been spending a lot time filing losing lawsuits lately, did not bring the case that resulted in the court striking down the “topping-up” provisions that allowed a candidate in the public financing system to seek additional funds when his or her opponent exceeded fundraising amounts set forth in the far-reaching act.
Foley continues to repeat a point that could resonate with primary voters: Republicans don’t like the public financing act. Fedele was at his weakest in last week’s televised primary when he tried to justify taking the funds.
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Foley took Fedele to court 3 times and 3 times the courts ruled that Fedele earned the money and was allowed to spend it. Malloy has already received and spent his money as well and you don’t hear Lamont crying. Instead of worrying about the Fedele campaign spending the 2 plus million that they’ve earned, why doesn’t the Foley camp try defending how he’s going to balance a budget when all he does is write a check when his campaign needs it?!?! Is Foley wealthy enough to clode out deficit with a personal check?? If so, I’ll vote for him!
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Courtney Weaver and Courtney Weaver, Liz Osborn. Liz Osborn said: Kevin Rennie: "Foley is right, Fedele should return bonus" http://bit.ly/dqwkPD seems like everyone agrees but #fedele #ctgop #ctgov […]
Tecnically, Mike Fedele should have returned the $930,000. But given it’s more important to win the Governors race without regard to “values” / @ all costs he can spend it. I will also point out Mike has season tickets to the Yankees (behind the Yankees dugout), lives in a weathly neighborhood, drives a Lambourhgini, a Porsche and a Lexus and takes great family trips all over the world. He like manicures, expensive shoes and has a 1200 bottle wine collection in his wine celler. So why are we paying for his campaign again?
Rebecca, how do you reconcile your concern with the budget deficit and yet support Fedele’s use of millions of taxpayer dollars to buy TV ads and bumper stickers? Fedele is a wealthy man. How come he’s not using his own wealth to further his ego-driven campaign? Why is he using our money? You’d expect that from a Democrat, but from a Republican who claims to be conservative? Not.
It’s not like anything he is doing is illegal. I’m not going to give Foley my vote simply because he is willing to use his own money to fund a campaign. You have to look beyond that and examine the candidate as well. In that respect for sure Fedele beats Foley. Nobody is perfect nor can one person make everyone ahppy but I like Fedele’s politics even if I’m not a huge fan of him using the CEP grants. At the end of the day I wouldn’t offer up my hard earned money to run for public office, especially in such a hostile climate.
I agree that Fedele should return the supplemental grant that was declared unconstitutional. I think he’d get more mileage out of that move than spending it on yet more commercials.
He’s going to lose the primary if he has 1.2 million, 2.1 million or no money so really, what difference does it make anyway?
I would like to point out Stan that I know the Fedele’s and ALOT of what you wrote is incorrect so you may want to do some fact checking before slandering a candidate on the web.
These are untrue…”Mike has season tickets to the Yankees (behind the Yankees dugout), drives a Lambourhgini, a Porsche.” Have you followed his family on vacation?? Or taken a peek at his toes?? Maybe you broke into his house to witness his wine collection?? You are just plain freaky!!
One interesting development is that the Fedele camp will be represented by no fewer than three different law firms tomorrow.
According to the Supreme Court website, team Fedele, flush with it’s infusion of taxpayer dollars, will be represented by (1) The Gallagher Law Firm, (2) the law offices of R. Bartley Halloran and (3) Robert Dante Russo. From Kevin’s posts, it sounds like Bart was counsel of record for the trial so it would be interesting to know if Gallagher and Russo are new or not. In addition to it’s own lawyers, team Fedele will also receive another taxpayer assist from three assistant attorneys general as well as the senior appellate counsel for the SEEC. For anyone keeping score, that means a minimum of seven attorneys will be on hand tomorrow to defend the SEEC’s interpretation of CEP.
Tom Foley will be represented by Horton Shield and Knox, probably Dan Kirsh who has undoubtedly been aided by the other partners and associates at the firm. Oz Griebel will be represented by a friend of his at Bingham McCutchen.
There’s a David and Goliath metaphor to be found in here somewhere. I’m just not sure who David is.
*sorry, I meant to say that from his posts it is clear that Kevin was present for the arguments at trial. I’m curious if Bart appeared solo or if the other two were also present.
>>”.., drives a Lambourhgini”
Nothing but a farm tractor on steroids, Enzo Ferrari wouldn’t even speak to Lamborghini (note correct spelling).
Mike Fedele *occasionally* drives a Ferrari; I’d be shocked and disappointed to learn he had a Lamborghini as they’re simply gauche.
Rebecca,
Foley has yet to lose on the merits of his case. He has lost injunctions to stop the spending of the money prior to being heard on the merits. Given that the appellate court ruled that one of the provisions is unconstitutional I would not be surprised if Foley prevails tomorrow on the merits. The sad thing here is that the money will likely have been spent already.
I never knew that Fedele had as many lawyers as he did. He could not have put himself further on the wrong side of this issue if he would have tried.
Rebecca,
The reason Lamont isn’t “crying” about the spending of Malloy is because they’re both Democrats and believe in the CEP. Foley and Griebel, however, do not agree that taxpayer’s money should be used to fund a campaign. At least someone has the constituents’ pockets in mind…
As for who to support on August 10th – has anyone considered Griebel? I mean, he is the underdog, but a fantastic underdog at that! I do believe he’s the best candidate to get the job as CT governor done.
I don’t know how someone who is promising “strong conservative leadership” in his campaign ads can take public financing. There is no true conservative in his or her right mind that would find public financing of his or her campaign to be acceptable. This is especially true given Fedele’s personal wealth. Sure he’s not in as good a position to privately fund his campaign as Foley but he’s certainly in a much better position to do that than Oz Griebel. I agree with Kevin, I think that come primary day this is really going to resonate with voters. You can’t just forget about being fiscally conservative when it’s going to help your campaign’s war chest. That’s ridiculous and just typical politicking.
A responsible Republican governor would surely not except taxpayer dollars to help fund a campaign. Personal wealth aside, Fedele should return the public campaign finance bonus and reject future taxpayer paid funding. Fedele should play fair and match his opponents by privately funding his campaign.
Foley is right, but with such a strong lead within the Republicans, why bother with this now? How about he works on lobbying for change after the election is over? Obviously public money shouldn’t be spent on campaigns, but don’t worry about it a few weeks before the primary!
ctrepublican1. Because his lead is based upon being the only candidate with money for TV ads. He knows that once either of the other candidates is on the air, his lead will disappear.
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