The State Elections Enforcement Commission on Friday denied Democratic State Senate candidate Dennis Bradley’s application for a general election $95,000 public campaign grant for violations of campaign finance laws stemming, in part, from his formal announcement in March that was financed by his law firm. According to the decision he still faces civil financial penalties, as well as his campaign treasurer, Board of Education member Jessica Martinez. Bradley is also a member of the school board.
The commission voted 5-0 for the following:
The Commission hereby resolves that pursuant to General Statutes § 9-711 (a), the Attorney Dennis Bradley for State Senate campaign shall not receive any additional grant monies from the fund for the remainder of the election cycle and is deemed a nonparticipating candidate because the Commission determines that the committee made or incurred expenditures in excess of the applicable expenditure limit set forth in General Statutes § 9-702 (c), as a result of:
(1) A coordinated expenditure with the BDK law firm for the Dolphin Cove Event in the amount of approximately $7,107;
(2) A coordinated expenditure with the BDK law firm for commercial advertising clearly identifying the candidate with 90 days of the vote and which had not been broadcast or appeared before; and
(3) An expense in the amount of approximately $2,000 incurred for fundraising and other social media related services performed by the treasurer.
The Commission determines that these excess expenditures together, and each alone, were not de minimis in nature and the candidate or treasurer had knowledge of each of these expenditures. Any violations and civil penalties shall be further addressed in the resolution of File No. 2018-053.
For background see here.
The State Election Enforcement Commission voted against Dennis Bradley because Dennis is “good Looking.”
LOL!
Ron, It sounds like none of the SEEC members received their 8×10 glossy of Dennis Bradley yet!
Someone drop the ball!
There were four fundraising events featured on Dennis Bradley’s facebook page which were clearly held because the dates of many of his donations matched the event dates and there were photos and video of the events. There was food, beverages, DJs, etc, at these events, however none of the events were identified in the campaign finance reports and not a single expense nor in-kind donation was identified for the fundraising events in question.
Where did the food, beverages, DJs, etc, come from?
It looks like Board of Education member Jessica Martinez is going to be fined because she is Bradley’s treasurer.
Let’s remember that Aaron Turner’s very serious complaint regarding bribery, a quid pro quo, and illegal campaign contributions has yet to be addressed by the SEEC. I think Dennis Bradley should and may be referred for criminal prosecution.
What this shows me is that we cannot just complain on OIB about AB fraud, illegal behavior during elections, etc. We have to take the time to file factual and comprehensive complaints with supporting evidence as needed.
It is time consuming and it takes time to see tesulys from the SEEC, however it is worth the effort.
I have filed five additional complaints since August 14th. All five are related to AB VIOLATIONS.
I am working on three more right now, and it is very tedious and time consuming. I am sending a message that someone is watching and holding those who fail to behave ethically accountable. Especially in the 138th District.
In fact,I was told by someone in the Ganim administration that I had Lydia and her people running scared in JFK during the primary and significantly impacted her AB operation.
I hope others do the same. Especially in the 130th District, the 137th District and the 139th District.
I agree that the SEEC is time consuming and I have posted this complaint before here http://stratfordtaxpayersforbettergovernment.blogspot.com/2017/12/state-elections-enforcement-commission.html
it clearly shows the Stratford Town Clerk and Registrar engaged in fraud. If the SEEC needs more than 10 months to investigate shouldn’t the suspect people be removed for the election process until the complaint is resolved?
Mayor Hoydick of Stratford does nothing about this but last year the Stratford Town Attorney by passed the SEEC and used the police department to go after 2 democrats for attempted ballot fraud. They were arrested and convicted.
https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Stratford-Police-2-Bridgeport-residents-12510770.php
https://www.jud2.ct.gov/crdockets/CaseDetailDisp.aspx?source=Pending&Key=1506f445-1ace-47ef-9122-fdd5d54468bb
https://www.jud2.ct.gov/crdockets/CaseDetailDisp.aspx?source=Pending&Key=24ca4845-f5d0-4bd5-99b4-11834445ac2b
The current Town Clerk and Registrar have done worst and it shouldn’t take 10months for them when it only took 2 months for Chapell and Steveson.
Furthermore, the commission finds that it owes candidate Aaron Turner an apology for failing to act on a timely basis. The lack of funds for the general election will have no bearing on the race except to piss of Ralf Ford and his East End posse by not having $90,000 for street money.
Bob, I spoke with the SEEC investigator working on my complaint yesterday morning. He informed me that there is a different investigator working on Aaron’s complaint. Both are still actively being investigated.
He spoke in general and broad terms, however I came away thinking the other shoe has yet to drop.
A DTC member told me that Dennis has had people out canvassing and working on ABs and people are upset they have not been paid. How will they be paid now? The SEEC is watching him like a hawk.
Think about it, Dennis’ campaign would have received $95,000 to be spent in 18 days. Can you even create three mail pieces and have them delivered to voters in 18 days? I highly doubt it.
Not only was Ralph Ford banking on that money, so was Lydia Martinez. I’m sure Tom Coble was looking for his usual “consulting fee”.
After all, they are all bottom feeders.
The SEEC needs better control on these grants it seems like people get involved with campaigns just to scam grants look at the 23rd district https://ballotpedia.org/Connecticut_State_Senate_District_23 in 2012 almost $400,000 went into the district and most of it is wasted. There are residents in this district that really need help. This money could be better used. Stratford Republicans look really greedy getting $91,000 in 2012 running Mizera in the general https://seec.ct.gov/eCrisReporting/Data/Attachment/Unassigned/SEEC30_130257_1.pdf This year Stratford tried for a double dip they engineered a Republican primary in the 23rd and got a $39,000 CEP grant but they lost to Republican opponent John Rodriguez who only had $100, so Mizera missed out on the $95,000 general grant. They did manage to waste much of the grant money this year https://cash.ctmirror.org/committee/12046/2018/expenses/See more
Sorry part of my post was cut off. Here is the rest.
Most of the donations needed to get that grant came from outside the 23rd district ( the rules were changed this year too to allow the max donation to increase from $100 to $250 so you need less donators) most of the awarded grant money went to outside district vendors. The 23rd District and it’s residents are being shorted.
While saying he wanted to be State Senator Mizera is also treasure for a New Haven campaign that has gotten a $28,000 CEP grant
https://seec.ct.gov/eCrisReporting/Data/Attachment/Unassigned/SEEC30_October_10_Filing_61481.PDF
lets see how that money is spent
Mario’s pick makes the DTC look like fools. I think old Mario has seen his last days, time to put the chairman out to pasture!
If that is all Dennis has to worry about and then goes on to win, what does he care. Two years from now all will be forgotten and who will look like a fool?
Bob, people can only forget if you let them. When I was working to help elect Aaron, I went door to door with copies of the CT Post article about the alleged bribe. I spoke with voters about it and gave every voter a copy of the CT Post article so they could read it themselves.
I only walked five (5) of the ten (10) turfs in Thomas Hooker because I was still recovering from my back surgery.
I them mailed a personal letter from me with a copy of the same CT Post article to every likely voter in my precinct.
Aaron beat Dennis by 154 votes at Thomas Hooker. In 2016, Ed only beat Dennis by 134 votes. I actually improved my results.
I always tell people that voters only know what they know. A good canvasser can educate voters with factual information.
As I was standing at Thomas Hooker School on August 14, 2018, I would approach voters by stating “I sent you a personal letter with a CT Post article regarding Senate Candidate Dennis Bradley. Did you receive it?” Many people, not all, said yes and either they stated that they would not vote for Dennis or they would be voting for Aaron.
I wonder what the results would have been if I had personally walked the other five (5) turfs.
How long does cash strapped Connecticut continue to do this?
Nearly 200 legislative candidates had qualified for funding under Connecticut’s clean-elections program, with the state disclosing that the 2016 election cycle it handed out $8 million in grants for that campaign cycle.
State officials said that public campaign financing awards to candidates for 2014 will total more than $33 million – a record amount for Connecticut’s taxpayer-funded election system.
The grants range from $28,150 for House races to $95,710 for the Senate.
And they even get money if no one is running against them.
Bob, I think the legislature changed that provision.
How much Lysol will it take to get the stink off of this one?
The SEEC investigations are slow because the commission is underfunded and understaffed. If it was up to speed the political culture in Connecticut would be much different and Joe Ganim would have returned to prison.