State guide to campaign finance laws for municipal candidates

Campaign Contributions

Campaign contributions are important information. For instance, having this information allowed me to know that four VPs of the Maguire Group, which has been hired by North Haven to do work relating to the Sackett Point Road bridge and which has been sued for millions of dollars by Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, gave money to this year's Kopetz for First Selectman campaign. For more info on this, read the blog entry.

The latest campaign disclosure reports, the last before the election, were filed on October 10, for the period from July 1 through September 30, and then again on October 30, for the period October 1 through 23. Click here for October 10 Kopetz campaign disclosure report. And for the October 10 McCarty report, click separately for the basic report, the contributors list, and the expenses addendum. Click for the October 30 Kopetz campaign report, and for the October 30 McCarty campaign report. There will be one more campaign filing, by due at the beginning of 2008.

The contributions to the Kopetz campaign (for the September 30 report) were $9,800. Of this, $3,050 were from individuals, and $6,750 from political action committees (PACs). $5,400 in contributions came from PACs established by or on behalf of a lobbyist.

The contributions to the McCarty campaign (for the September 30 report) were $14,870 from individuals, and $125 from one PAC, which was not established by or on behalf of a lobbyist.

Campaign contribution report from earlier in this year's municipal election season
The first is from the First Selectman campaign of Kevin R. Kopetz. For the period from February 7 through March 21, contributions to the Kopetz campaign totaled $50,600. Janet McCarty announced her candidacy for First Selectman at just about this time, so she has not had any contributions to report.

With respect to this campaign report and the McCarty 7/10 report, there are three columns missing from the contribution report, for space purposes, since they provide no information (and one, addresses, because I blotted it out). One is for checks, and everyone paid by check. One is for people with municipal contracts, and no one said they have a municipal contract (there are contractors here, but they only have to do this if they give $400 or more). And the third is for people who are lobbyists, and no one said he or she is a lobbyist. Similarly, blank pages were left out of the scanned Kopetz 7/10 report.

Click here for the July 10 reports of the Kopetz campaign and the McCarty campaign, as well as the July 10 McCarty contributions list (the Kopetz campaign took in only two additional contributions during this period). McCarty took in $8,225, leaving her still far behind the incumbent, whose gifts came primarily from town employees, officials, and contractors. As one town employee told me, "It's hard to say no to the man upstairs."

Some people feel that political contributions are personal information. Contributions reports are public documents, because the state has determined that contributors' right to privacy is less important than citizens' right to know where candidates' funds come from. But I have taken out the home addresses of those who gave directly to candidates (the party town committee reports are on the state computer, not my computer).

Below are links to the Statements of Receipts and Expenditures of the two North Haven party town committees (on the CT State Elections Enforcement Commission site), which include who gave them what contributions over the last two election cycles (that is, for the 2003 and 2005 elections) as well as so far in the current election cycle. The state site says that the Dems finally filed their July 10 return on August 28, but when you click on it, there is nothing there. I will try to get a copy of it. The next filings are due October 10.

North Haven Democrats
1-9-03, 4-10-03, 7-7-03, 10-7-03, 10-28-03, 1-7-04, 4-7-04, 7-7-04, 10-7-04, 10-26-04, 1-7-05, 10-11-05, 11-1-05, 1-10-06, 4-10-06, 10-31-06, 1-10-07, 4-10-07, 7-10-07, 10-10-07, 10-30-07

North Haven Republicans
1-9-03 amendment, 4-10-03, 7-7-03 amendment, 10-7-03, 10-28-03, 1-7-04, 1-7-04 revised, 4-7-04, 7-7-04, 10-7-04, 10-26-04, 4-7-05, 10-11-05, 11-1-05, 1-10-06, 4-10-06, 10-10-06, 10-31-06, 1-10-07,  4-10-07, 7-10-07, 10-10-07, 10-30-07