Stratford GOP chairman questions Democratic campaign contributions

STRATFORD — What took you so long?

That was the message the chairman of the town’s Republican party had after his Democratic counterpart complained to the state of a “strong suspicion” of campaign finance violations involving one of the party’s candidates for mayor.

The complaint, made by Democratic Town Committee Chair Steve Taccogna against his predecessor, Stephanie Philips, alleged Philips had financed a 2017 mayoral campaign with straw donations from reputed former mobster Gus Curcio and accused her of using federal Paycheck

Protection Program loans made to her business for her run this year.

Philips has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and said she welcomes the chance to clear her name.

The State Elections Enforcement Commission voted to investigate Taccogna’s complaint at a meeting this month. The investigation could take up to a year.

But less than a week after Taccogna’s complaint was made public by Hearst Connecticut Media, Lou DeCilio, the chairman of the Republican Town Committee, issued a statement saying Taccogna’s complaint should have come much sooner.

“It is unfortunate that Chairman Taccogna failed to take action in alerting the State Election Enforcement Commission (SEEC) for years and continued the practice of accepting ‘dirty money’ from straw donors throughout his time as Democrat Town Committee Treasurer,” DeCilio said.

DeCilio said Taccogna “should not be praised for eventually doing the right thing because the motivation behind the complaint was to eliminate Immacula Cann’s rival for the mayoral endorsement several days prior to the DTC nominating convention.”

Taccogna has acknowledged the timing of the complaint was unfortunate but said the state probe, when completed, will speak for itself.

“I’m going to continue to rely upon the authorities at SEEC to fulfill their duties, complete their investigation, and let the final report tell the tale,” he said in a statement Wednesday.

DeCilio also questioned the ethics of the Democrats’ current nominee for mayor, Cann, who edged out Philips during a caucus last month for the party’s endorsement.

DeCilio noted Cann served as the party’s deputy treasurer in 2018, when it accepted $2,000 in surplus funds from Philips’ campaign, and he said that the money should be turned over to charity. DeCilio referred to an April 2018 filing the DTC made to the state that have Cann’s electronic signature as deputy treasurer — and list the contributions made by Philips’ campaign.

Cann said in a statement that DeCilio didn’t get his facts straight — and is grasping at straws because he knows the GOP is in trouble in this year’s election.

“This fiction has no basis in reality. None,” she said in a statement. “I was not deputy treasurer when these contributions were made.”

Cann said she only came onboard as deputy treasurer after the contributions in question were made.

DeCilio also said that in light of Taccogna’s complaint, SEEC should reopen an investigation into a 2019 complaint he made alleging wrongdoing in a political action committee formed by Democratic candidates for municipal offices which SEEC dismissed after concluding errors made in the PAC’s reports were immediately corrected and not “knowing or willful.”

It’s not the first time DeCilio has called into question an SEEC investigation. Last March he threatened to take action against the commission after it fined a former Republican Town Council chairman for voting from the wrong address and registering to vote in Stratford even though he lived in Woodbury.

DeCilio was named in the complaint, but SEEC took no action against him — nor did it clear him of wrongdoing specifically. He called the resolution “unacceptable.”