By Mark Pazniokas / CTMirror.org
A Westport financier is one of two major donors to CT Truth PAC, an independent-expenditure group supporting Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski.
The political action committee, which is paying for television and web ads attacking Gov. Ned Lamont, reported Sunday it has spent about $300,000 of the $1 million provided by Westport resident Thomas E. McInerney and another wealthy businessman.
Formed in February with an initial contribution of $500,000 from David Kelsey, of Old Lyme, the super PAC collected another $500,000 last month from McInerney, according to the campaign finance report filed Sunday with the State Elections Enforcement Commission.
McInerney is the co-founder and CEO of Bluff Point Associates, a private equity investment firm.
He contributed $100,000 in 2018 to FixCT, the super PAC that supported fellow Westporter Steve Obsitnik, a GOP gubernatorial candidate who later paid $90,000 to SEEC to settle allegations of illegal coordination.
State law prohibits direct contributions of more than $3,500 to a gubernatorial campaign and $10,000 to a state political party, but there is no limit on contributions to independent groups known as super PACs — as long as they do not coordinate their activities with candidates they are supporting.
The only other contributor to CT Truth PAC before the close of the campaign finance reporting period on March 31 was Matthew Sharp, a co-founder with Kelsey at Hamilton Point Investments. Sharp contributed $25,000.
The super PAC’s advertising was shaped by Chris LaCivita, who was a consultant to Stefanowski’s 2018 campaign.
Super PACs cannot coordinate advertising with the campaigns they are supporting, and shared vendors or consultants constitute a presumption of illegal coordination under state law.
But LaCivita’s work for CT Truth PAC is well outside an 18-month cooling off period. His firm, Advancing Strategies, was paid $57,575 by the PAC.
The initial advertising buy was $103,511 on television and $50,073 on the web.
Thanks for reporting this…… the whole super pac crap is insidious. If they did not have a large amount of money to make down the road they would not spend their excessive cash on disinformation campaigns disparaging a canditdate let alone a sitting governor. It used to be what good a candidate would do better than the other that was touted . Our society run by money is getting really ugly. I appreciate you putting a face to the shameful. .