GOP boss: State Dems profited

Chairman J.R. Romano calls out DNC for accepting tainted political cash

It’s not often that Connecticut’s top Republican has anything charitable to say about Richard Blurassment but he’s calling on the state Democratic Party to follow the senator’s lead in cleansing itself of political cash he says is tainted by Harvey Weinstein.

The scandal-ridden Hollywood mogul has been a perennial top contributor to the Democratic National Committee, which subsidizes the state party’s operating expenses to the tune of $7,500 a month.

With the growing number of rape and sexual hamenthal, claims leveled against Weinstein, who owns a home in Westport and has given $300,000 overall to the DNC, state GOP Chairman J.R. Romano is criticizing that money trail.

“While blaming Republicans for every social injustice across our state, they have taken tens of thousands of dollars from Hollywood sexual assailant Harvey Weinstein, funneled through $296,290 in political donations to the Democrat National Committee,” Romano said Friday. “Unless and until the Connecticut Democrats reject their endless supply of dirty money, their select moral outrage means nothing. It is time for them to put up or shut up about fairness, equality and common decency.”

Several prominent

“Unless and until the Connecticut Democrats reject their endless supply of dirty money, their select moral outrage means nothing. It is time for them to put up or shut up about fairness, equality and common decency.” GOP chairman J.R. Romano

Democrats have divested themselves of direct campaign contributions from Weinstein, who hosted a $35,800-a-plate fundraiser for Barack Obama in 2012 in Connecticut. Leigh Appleby, a state Democratic Party spokesman, said that was the appropriate response, but stopped there.

“Weinstein’s actions are sickening and inexcusable, but let’s be very clear: only one party is serious about ending sexual assault in this country. It’s not the Republicans,” Appleby said in a statement.

Since the Weinstein bombshell dropped, Democrats have bristled at GOP barbs, mentioning Donald Trump and, now, the guilty plea of former Republican Party Treasurer Gary Schaffrick for child endangerment.

Schaffrick received a 10year suspended sentence and five years of probation earlier this year after admitting to bathing in the nude with a young boy.

“Look, we understand that J.R. is casting aspersions to catch up on fundraising to prove any value to statewide candidates, but he’s not one to be taken seriously after keeping on payroll individuals who have been accused, charged, and ultimately pleaded guilty of inappropriate relations with a child,” Appleby said.

Romano said Democrats have been trying to create a diversion.

“Gary Schaffrick was someone that left our employment and this deflection isn’t going to work,” Romano said. “They can bring up Gary Schaffrick all they want. At the end of the day, they’re still taking Weinstein’s money and they’re not calling on their party heads to return it.”

The state GOP boss also spurned comparisons between Weinstein and Trump, whose campaign was jolted last October by an “Access Hollywood” tape in which the future president was overheard bragging to show host Billy Bush about having his way with women as a celebrity.

“Grab them by the p—-y. You can do anything,” Trump is heard saying.

“These are not morally equivalent,” Romano said. “What Harvey Weinstein did is not morally equivalent. Over 20 women have claimed either rape or sexual assault, and remind them of that.”

Blumenthal revealed last week that he would give $2,700 to the Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence, matching the amount of a donation he accepted from Weinstein last year for his re-election campaign.

The senator told Hearst Connecticut Media last week that he was aghast to read about the pattern of alleged sexual harassment perpetrated by Weinstein on actresses and other women looking to get a toehold in the film industry. That was before multiple women accused Weinstein of rape and sexual assault.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the recipient of $1,000 from Weinstein in 1996, said she would give $1,000 the Domestic Violence Services of Greater New Haven.

In a CNN appearance Sunday on “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper, U.S. Sen Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said Democrats should probably give all the money they received from Weinstein back or to charity.