Democratic State Chairwoman Nancy DiNardo announced Monday that she filed a complaint with the Elections Enforcement Commission accusing Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Foley of violating a state law requiring campaigns to notify the commission within 48 hours if spending exceeds 90 percent of its spending threshold.
According to a Democratic Party press release, Foley’s campaign had spent $6.348 million as of his Oct. 12 filing with SEEC. DiNardo said that the filing was the first notification the campaign had given the commission that it had exceeded the 90 percent spending threshold.
The press release went on to say that the Oct. 12 filing was for almost the entire month of September, making Foley’s announcement somewhere between 11 and 38 days late. DiNardo also asserted that the campaign had violated a similar but separate statute requiring a campaign to report excess receipts and spending after the $6.25 million threshold is hit.
“Tom Foley has chosen not to participate in our state’s clean elections program, and that’s his choice,” said DiNardo in the press release.
But later on Monday the Foley campaign issued a statement denying that it had reached the 90 percent threshold and accusing the Democrats of trying to redirect scrutiny away from its candidate Dan Malloy.
“This complaint is a frivolous attempt to divert attention from Dannel Molloy’s attempt to raise taxes on Connecticut’s working families,” a spokesperson for the Foley campaign said.
“Dan Malloy has taken $6 million in taxpayer dollars for the general election campaign, and therefore the 90 percent threshold is $5.4 million,” the Foley campaign said, adding that when, and if, the campaign reached that level of spending it would file the appropriate statement “in a timely manner.”
A spokesperson for the Elections Enforcement Commission confirmed that they had received the complaint, which is currently under review to determine whether or not it will be docketed.