A legislative committee released a list of six officials from Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s administration and the State Elections Enforcement Commission that it will ask to testify in its investigation of a Rell campaign fundraiser.
The Government Administration and Elections Committee sent out its second round of letters last week to officials involved in the events surrounding the fundraiser. Those who will be asked to testify at next month’s hearing include Joan M. Andrews, principal attorney for the Elections Enforcement Commission; Marc W. Crayton, staff attorney for the commission; Department of Transportation Commissioner Stephen E. Korta II; Rachel Rubin, Rell’s former ethics czar and currently Director of Compliance at the University of Connecticut; Michael Starkowski, deputy commissioner of the Department of Social Services; and Department of Administrative Services Commissioner Linda Yelmini.In addition to their testimony the six officials have been asked by the co-chairman, Rep. Christopher Caruso D-Bridgeport, and vice-chairman, Sen. Edward Meyer D-Guilford, to submit a number of documents in advance of the hearing. Caruso said Monday that officials have been cooperating with the committee’s request for documents.“We are setting the table with as much information as necessary,” Caruso said. The committee added the two elections enforcement lawyers, Andrews and Crayton, to address questions about the elections enforcement investigation in January, he said. The investigation will look at why State Elections Enforcement Commissioner Jeffrey Garfield sent information about elections violations to Rell campaign manager, Kevin Deneen. Deneen helped negotiate the elections enforcement settlement for 16 officials from Rell’s administration.M. Lisa Moody, Rell’s chief of staff, has acknowledged distributing invitations for the fundraiser to the officials, during work hours, so they could pass them along to others, including subordinates. The 16 officials were fined $500 each for violating a civil statute that bans them from soliciting political contributions.
