Democratic mayoral candidate Justin Elicker Thursday filed a complaint against incumbent Mayor Toni Harp Thursday over her 2017 campaign filings.
Elicker, who is campaigning to challenge Harp in a party primary this year, filed the complaint with the State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC). He singled out seven “distinct types of violations of elections law” that he said prevented the public from knowing “the details of nearly $100,000 in undisclosed payments to her last reelection bid.”
Those alleged violations included not identifying names of $93,502 of donors, submitting late quarterly and “deficit filing” reports, failing to file a dozen “individual deficit filings,” closing out the 2017 campaign committee before submitting all required reports, and appointing Jonathan Wilson as her 2019 campaign manager while he was still serving as the 2017 committee treasurer.
Elicker said he discovered these violations by following up on this Feb. 20 article by the New Haven Register’s Mary O’Leary on other SEEC violations that Harp’s campaign subsequently fixed.
Click here to read the complaint.
Elicker is participating this year in the city’s Democracy Fund, which offers public financing to candidates who cap individual donations and forswear political action committee contributions. Harp is not participating in the program.
In a release issued Thursday, Elicker portrayed the alleged violations as symbolic of Harp’s leadership.
“A leader who allows a campaign to be grossly mismanaged either doesn’t care, or worse, has encouraged their team to hide the truth through disinformation and delay. Either way, these systemic violations are a betrayal of the public trust,” Elicker stated.
Harp rejected the idea that problems with campaign filings reflect on her leadership of the city.
“He can say whatever he chooses to say. I ran the city for five years. I don’t think that indicates a lack of leadership,” Harp said in a conversation with the Independent.
“I don’t do those filings. I did sign off on them because I thought they were complete. … The person who does the books for us was out of town after the Register article. She is due back. We’re just going to check” on outstanding issues then, she said.
Elicker is participating this year in the city’s Democracy Fund, which offers public financing to candidates who cap individual donations at $370 (rather than the $1,000 legal maximum) and forswear political action committee contributions. Harp is not participating in the program.