Dems File Elections Complaint Against Foley–Foley: They’re Full Of It

UPDATE: There’s probably going to be a lot of tit-for-tat responses in the next few months. News release from the Connecticut Democratic Party:

Today, the Connecticut Democratic Party filed a complaint with the State Election Enforcement Commission stating that Tom Foley’s gubernatorial campaign broke state election laws by violating campaign spending caps for publicly financed candidates. State law requires candidates participating in the public financing system limit their spending to $250,000–or $270,000 with personal funds–before receiving public financing grants. The Foley campaign’s finance reports show it has spent nearly all of the qualifying money raised. The complaint alleges:

• The Foley campaign made excessive unreported expenditures before receiving his public finance grant, the costs of which would exceed the spending cap.
• On June 28, 2014 Foley for CT’s SEEC report entitled “additional Itemized Statement in further support of application for Public Grant” disclosed expenditures of $259,081.97. That would leave the Foley campaign with only $10,918.03 to spend between June 29 and July 2 in order to remain under the $270,000 expenditure limit.
• According to media reports, Foley’s television advertising buy that began today cost well over $35,000.
• Mr. Foley aired a professionally produced advertisement, even though production expenses have yet to be reported.
• Because of the timing in which Foley for CT aired television advertisements, it is evident that Foley for CT spent funds on TV air time that were not within the bounds of the Citizens’ Election Program.
• The Foley campaign did not report any spending on staff between June 1 and June 27, even though prior reports would suggest he had at least six staff members as of June 1st. A conservative estimate of the Foley campaign’s payroll would put it at approximately $15,000 per month, which, in isolation, would exceed the cap.
• In the Foley campaign’s finance report covering April and May 2014, spokesman Chris Cooper was paid $5,317.35 in fees. Mr. Foley’s last report showed no expenditures for Mr. Cooper, raising the issue of how he is being compensated financially for his continuing role as Tom Foley’s spokesman.

These constitute likely violations of the law.

“We know Tom Foley has been cavalier in his fundraising, reckless in his filings, and incompetent in his organizational management, so this blatant campaign finance violation should come as no surprise. He’s trying to circumvent the rules,” said Devon Puglia, the Democratic Party spokesman. “Tom Foley belittled the public finance system when he was a self-funded candidate in 2010. Now, he’s breaking the law–and taxpayer dollars are at stake. With such gross violations, he has shown he is unfit to be Governor.”

Response from Foley campaign:

“The filing by the Democratic State Central Committee is one more attempt by Governor Malloy and his surrogates to distract attention from the woeful record Malloy has compiled as governor–a record that includes one of the worst job recovery rates of any state in the nation, spending that remains out of control despite a record-setting tax hike of $1.5 billion, a CNBC ranking as the fifth worst state for doing business in the country, the highest debt per capita in the nation, and a looming billion dollar state budget deficit.”