Bronin receiving nationwide support
HARTFORD – Following the same playbook that paid him dividends last time, Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin has taken his reelection campaign on the road with fundraisers in Washington, D.C., Boston and Beverly Hills.
Bronin has spent most of his time campaigning over the last three months in Hartford, holding 10 fundraisers in the city, including cocktails at the West End home of manufacturing executive Kurt Malec, according to a campaign finance report filed last week. Three more events courted donors in Hartford’s suburbs, which have eclipsed Bronin’s native Greenwich as a major source of outside support.
But the incumbent mayor has also maintained connections that predate his time in Hartford, from Washington bureaucrats to Hollywood creatives.
Of the $281,000 Bronin raised in the second quarter of the year, about $33,000 came from out-of-state fundraising events. In all, Bronin has collected $788,000 in campaign contributions since January, more than 10 times as much as his closest competitor, former Mayor Eddie Perez.
One-hundred-fifty people have made the maximum contribution under state law: $1,000.
On June 17, Bronin courted donors over cocktails at Pheonix Park Hotel in Washington, D.C., across town from the Treasury Building where Bronin served as a deputy assistant secretary. Scott Pearson, executive director of the DC Public Charter School Board, gave $500. So did Edward Knight, executive vice president of Nasdaq.
He also received contributions from three Treasury officials: Andy Baukol, Michael Lieberman and J. Mark Iwry.
Bronin, also a singer, songwriter and guitar player, held a dinner party on June 29 at the Beverly Hills home of Greg Berlanti, a prolific Warner Brothers producer and director who Bronin has called a “longtime friend.” He also fundraised in Los Angeles four years ago, as a first-time mayoral candidate.
Berlanti helped create the TV series Dawson’s Creek, which featured one of Bronin’s songs in an episode in 2002. The producer’s success has snowballed in the years since — Berlanti directed “Love, Simon,” in 2018, and Berlanti Productions had 18 shows ordered ordered this year, including “Riverdale,” “Legends of Tomorrow” and “You.”
Bronin’s fundraiser collected donations from a few more Warner Brothers heavyweights and other notable Californians, like Jon Goldwater, co-CEO of Archie Comics; Jess Cangle, the former editor-in-chief of People Magazine; and Anthony Rendon, speaker of the California state assembly.
Bronin’s Boston connections are more closely tied to Hartford.
At a May luncheon in downtown Boston, Bronin took in money from John Caldwell, whose company Paradigm Properties owns the CityPlace office tower; Gilbert Winn, CEO of Winn Companies, which manages Hartford’s Temple Street Townhouses; Adam Winstanley, a real estate investor with projects in Greater Hartford; and lobbyists Thomas and Shelly O’Neill, whose firm O’Neill and Associates has a government affairs practice in Hartford.
That event raised more than $13,000, the most of his out-of-state excursions.
Locally, Bronin received maximum contributions from 16 people who said they represent companies with city contracts of at least $5,000.
Six of those donors work for Downes Construction, the company behind school renovations at Capital Preparatory Magnet, West Middle and M.D. Fox Elementary. He also received $1,000 from William Crosskey of Crosskey Architects, which has worked on numerous apartment conversions downtown and the development of the Noble Gas apartment building and market.
Most major corporate leaders who donated to Bronin’s re-election campaign have no contracts with the city, like Karen Lynch, president of the Aetna business unit at CVS Health; Martin Geitz, CEO and president of Simsbury Bank; or Kathleen Harris, benefits vice president at Time Warner.
Six people donated from Wonder Works Construction, the New York-based firm behind the Spectra apartments at 100 Trumbull St.. and 101 and 111 Pearl St.
In addition to the chief financial officer, Daniel Klaynberg, and real estate team member Edward Klaynberg, two other members of the Klaynberg family gave the maximum amount to Bronin’s campaign: Lauren Pepin Klaynberg, listed as a homemaker, and Robert Klaynberg, a student.
Of the 150 donors who gave Bronin the maximum amount, seven live in Hartford and 55 in other Hartford County cities and towns.
Perez has raised about $75,000 since April, when he announced his campaign for mayor, according to campaign finance reports. State Rep. Brandon McGee has raised nearly $43,000, followed by author and publisher Aaron Lewis with $3,181 and television entrepreneur J. Stan McCauley with less than $2,000.
School board member and former chairman Craig Stallings has not collected any contributions, according to the filings.
Rebecca Lurye can be reached at rlurye@courant.com.