The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
PAC money floods onto TV screens
Outside money is pouring into Connecticut heading into the final weekend before Election Day, and voters may feel it the most.
They’ll be the target of wall-to-wall television ads courtesy of Change PAC, a political action committee funded by the Republican Governors Association, spending money on behalf of GOP nominee Bob Stefanowski.
The D.C.-based RGA has dumped nearly $7.5 million into the PAC, which has spent the majority of that money on commercial attacking Democrat Ned Lamont.
“Polls show that the Connecticut governor’s race is a dead heat, but Bob Stefanowski is surging at the right time and in strong position to capture victory on Election Day,” said Jon Thompson, an RGA spokesman. “The RGA is all-in to help ensure Republicans win the governorship and deliver the change Connecticut desperately needs.”
Lamont had a slight but narrowing edge over Stefanowski — 47 to 43 percent — in the latest poll from Quinnipiac University released this week. Change PAC has spent more than 46 times that of the Democratic Counterpart, Our Connecticut PAC.
Cheri Quickmire, executive director of Common Cause in Connecticut, the election watchdog group, said the influx of money and advertising is confusing for voters, because it is hard to tell who is paying for the ads. For example, ads will say, “Paid for by Change PAC,” but most viewers don’t realize the Republican Governors Association is funding the PAC and even fewer know who is contributing to the RGA.
“It’s absolutely confusing and I think that we’re not easily able to say who gives money,” Quickmire said. “We can anticipate who gives money to the DGA or the RGA but do we know, really?”
The largest Connecticutbased contributors to the Republican Governor’s Association include Greenwich resident Reverge Anselmo, who invested $1.15 million; the Hartford-based insurance company Travelers, which spent $550,000; and Thomas McInerney, the hedge fund CEO of Bluff Point Associates, who paid $400,000.
“It’s distressing that Connecticut’s Super PACs are able to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money and they can either support or oppose candidates, and these Super PACs are being used by a handful of donors to control the election,” Quickmire said. “Basically they’re buying our elections to serve their interests. We are seeing even more money being dumped before election day and that is really a problem for Connecticut voters. People don’t know who is trying to buy their election and buy their candidates and voters need to know.”
Change Connecticut, another PAC funded by the Republican State Leadership Committee, is spending money in key legislative races as Republicans attempt to take the state Senate. The RSLC invested another $50,000 into the PAC, bringing the organization’s total contribution to nearly $1.2 million.
The candidate committees of Stefanowski and Lamont are making their final purchases of the election.
Stefanowski loaned his campaign for governor another $200,000 loan in October, bringing his reimbursable commitment up to $2.85 million with a week to go before Election Day, according to the latest filings with state regulators.
Lamont, a Greenwich investor, seems to be standing pat with $12.9 million of his personal wealth fully invested in the race. The amount is not reimbursable. Lamont has about $601,000 left in his coffers.
In all, Stefanowski, a consultant and former corporate executive from Madison, has raised $6.16 million, including $1.7 million in October. The filing, made to the State Elections Enforcement Commission Tuesday night, indicated that he has $184,244 on hand.
Unaffiliated candidate Oz Griebel, a former Hartford business leader, gave himself another $40,000 loan during the month, bringing his loan total to $183,500. But he’s far behind in the money game, having raised only $431,000, with $61,000 left.