Ex-mayor sued over alleged campaign debt

HAMDEN — Former Mayor

Curt Balzano Leng and the treasurer of his 2019 campaign are facing a lawsuit over funds they allegedly owe a campaign consulting firm.

The firm, Blue Edge Strategies, filed the lawsuit in Superior Court in Meriden last week, according to the state judicial website.

In its complaint, the company alleges Leng’s campaign incurred more than $47,000 of debt for services Blue Edge Strategies provided during the 2019 election season. It indicates Leng promised to pay the money back but never did. “I can’t comment on pending legal matters, other than to say we have a dispute on the amount owed for services provided,” Leng said in a statement. “I hope we can work it out amicably.”

As of Feb. 28, Leng’s 2019 campaign had a deficit of roughly $40,000, according to a March 2 campaign finance disclosure statement available at the Hamden town clerk’s office. Offset by a $4,000 payment made in August 2021 to Blue Edge Strategies, the campaign debt was previously reported as nearly $44,000 in March 2021, additional campaign finance statements show. At the time, Mike Farina, who runs Blue Edge Strategies, said about $40,000 was owed to him but that he trusted Leng to pay it back.

Leng, meanwhile, said last March that an event scheduled for early 2020 was intended to help pay that bill. But when COVID-19 hit, the event was canceled.

According to the lawsuit, Blue Edge Strategies acted as a strategist, consultant and “mail and digital vendor” for Leng’s 2019 campaign. “By October 29, 2019, the Plaintiff informed the Defendants that it had significant outstanding invoices that had not been paid, and that the Plaintiff would not continue to provide its services to the Defendants unless Leng would agree to personally guarantee the payment of the invoices owed to the Plaintiff if the Campaign could not raise enough money to satisfy its obligations under the Agreement,” the complaint says.

Leng then sent a written communication guaranteeing he would pay the bills if need be, it says.

But despite “multiple attempts to have the Defendants pay the invoices,” the complaint says, Blue Edge Strategies never received the money.

The lawsuit’s defendants include Leng, his campaign committee Leng for Hamden and his campaign treasurer, Dave Huston.

Huston could not be reached for comment.

It is not the first time Leng’s campaign finances have come into question. A complaint filed early last year with the State Elections Enforcement Commission listed the debt as a concern because his campaign allegedly never detailed the expenses behind it.

The SEEC complaint remains pending.

Some months after the complaint was submitted, Huston filed an amendment to the Leng campaign’s financial disclosures with the town clerk’s office. The amendment suggests that between August and November 2019, the campaign incurred 43,777.81 of expenses, which it had not paid by the following January.

Earlier in 2019, the campaign paid Blue Edge Strategies at least $19,000 for field services, walk cards, fundraising mailers, Facebook advertisements and several months worth of consulting, according to the financial disclosures. Additional filings show Leng’s 2021 campaign also used the firm’s services, paying Blue Edge Strategies at least $5,000. The 2021 campaign has not reported a deficit.

Leng