Kelsey is Biggest Source of Independent Expenditure in CT Governor’s Race, “He’s Just a Good Republican” (Ben Proto, Republican State Chair)
OLD LYME — CT Truth PAC, launched in February by Old Lyme businessman J. David Kelsey to produce TV commercials opposing the reelection of Gov. Ned Lamont, quit the race surprisingly early, making its last TV ad expenditure in June.
Happily for the Republican nominee, Bob Stefanowski, a new political action committee with twice the budget, Advancing Connecticut, quickly filled the void and has been airing ads questioning the integrity of Lamont and his wife.
And Kelsey, as it turns out, didn’t stop spending on trying to unseat the governor. Not by a long shot.
Read the full article titled One donor spent $2.2M underwriting ads attacking Ned Lamont by Mark Pazniokas and published Oct.27, 2022 in the CTMirror.
As the subject of this article, two comments: 1) why does an article from one publication get picked up verbatim by 15 other “news” organizations, seems a little oligopolist, and 2) the headline should read, ” Guy who likes Stefanowski donates to support him” – pretty crazy. I would note because these guys brought up, again, CTExaminer, the largest funder of CT Mirror is the billionaress, Karen Pritzker, of the non-neutral Illinois Pritzkers to the tune of $1 million last year, though CT Mirror has chosen to leave her name off all their material. We all have our funders, the integrity of a group is measured by its product, not vague insinuations.
Yeah. So the CT Mirror is an actual newspaper, with a staff of 27 and a board of 15. They are also a non-profit. which means that they make their finances public, as required by law.
Comparisons between CT Mirror and the Examiner – which has zero transparency, lists a staff of 9, but doesn’t share many details about the web site’s finances – are neither interesting or valid. It’s like comparing a 18 wheeler to a Tonka truck.
Also, Karen Pritzker lives in CT – last I checked, she is neither responsible for or beholden to the politics of her family members, and she has the freedom to give her money to whoever she wants.