Anti-Socialist Greenwich Billionaire Targeting Democratic Connecticut State Senators?

Oct 26

jonpeltoCampaign Finance, Corporate Viewpoint, Ethics, State Politics 5 Comments

Senators Cassano and Williams (Photo courtesy of Christine Stuart)

Following a press conference, yesterday, by State Senators Don Williams and Steve Cassano, the former chief of staff for the Connecticut Republican Party, and managing director of Voters for Good Government, admitted to Connecticut media outlets that television ads are going to be run against certain Democratic State Senators.  Liz Kurantowicz, the Voters for Good Government Political Action Committee’s staff person, told reporters that, “our goal is to try and bring to light bad policies and politicians that make bad decisions.”

The television advertisements are being produced by Cashman + Katz, an advertising and political consulting firm that has done work for the CT Dept. of Children and Families, the CT Dept. of Economic and Community Development, the CT Dept. of Motor Vehicles, the CT Dept. of Public Health, the CT Dept. of Transportation, the CT Development Authority, the CT Lottery, the CT Office of Policy & Management, the CT Science Center, the CT Convention Center and the CT Tourism agency.  While the company had ties to John Rowland’s administration, they have continued to get state business.

Voters for Good Government is a new “super-PAC” funded by Greenwich billionaire Thomas Peterffy.

According to a story in the Hartford Courant, Thomas Peterffy, “hates socialism because he grew up in communist Hungary before coming to America and making his fortune in discount brokerage.”

According to the news reports, this year Peterffy is spending up to $10 million dollars on television ads to, “rail against socialism.”

Meanwhile, he is also paying for television ads to unseat some of Connecticut’s Democratic State Senators, including Steven Cassano, the State Senator from Manchester, Glastonbury, Bolton and Andover.  Cassano is probably best known as the nicest, most decent member of the Connecticut General Assembly.

So who is Thomas Peterffy?

Peterffy is a Greenwich resident and stock market discount fund manager who has donated over $200,000 in campaign contributions during the past years including over $20,000 to Connecticut Republican candidates, including Linda McMahon, Steve Obsitnik, Christopher Shays, Rob Simmons and the Republican State Central Committee.

Oh, and another significant beneficiary of Peterffy’s largess…none-other-than New York Senator Chuck Schumer, who has received multiple donations from Peterffy in recent years.

The National Freedom Forum, an ultra-right-wing, organization recently wrote on their blog that, “New York Socialist Senator Chuckie Schumer is pushing for limits on First Amendment Freedom of Speech Rights related to political campaigns.  Socialists in Congress are also pushing for full disclosure of names and presumably addresses related to campaign contributions since the Supreme Court upheld the right of all Americans, or Corporations to donate to political campaigns.  The Socialists are scared to death of Political Action Committees funded by anonymous “rich” people…Remember, Socialists, including President Obama, hate the rich and successful, those earning more than $250,000 a year, which include more than 1 million Small Businesses.”

So there you go, the right-wing, anti-socialist Connecticut billionaire, who is spending his “hard earned” money to stamp out the likes of Connecticut State Senator Steve Cassano is doubling down with major contributions to Senator Schumer, a leading “liberal” member of the Senate Finance Committee and a member of the Subcommittee on Taxation, IRS Oversight, and Long-Term Growth, the very committee that oversees companies like the one owned by Thomas Peterffy.

So much for his ideological purity!

Peterffy, and his kind, are nothing more than two-faced, self-serving big-time political donors looking to manipulate democracy, for their own benefit.

For more on the story see CTNewsjunkie story: http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/ctnj.php/archives/entry/lawmakers_decry_outside_expenditure/

Courant story: http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-billionaire-senate-race-1026-20121025,0,632179.story

CTMirror story: http://ctmirror.com/story/17906/billionaires-super-pac-takes-aim-general-assembly

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  • jschmidt2

    Sounds like it’s business for supporting Schumer but idealogy for the ads. No worse than Soros or Obama taking campaign funds from energy companies and then giving them loans. It is smart business to give to someone who can influence regulation of your business I don;t like Schumer. I think he can bought by the highest bidder. Just because the company might have done business with the state during the Rowland days, doesn’t make them illegal. If they were they wouldn’t get state business. I’d be more inclined to look askance at any company getting business from the Malloy admin.

    • jonpelto

      You get points for consistency!

      Sent from my BlackBerry please excuss typos

      • jschmidt2

        thanks for reading. Keep up the investigative reporting. People need to know the good and bad of both parties.

      • jonpelto

        Thanks and I always read your comments! True, honest conservatives are a disappearing species and we are worse off for it.
        Even when I don’t agree with what you say, the observations force me to go back and reconsider or re-check. And the, of course, there are the times I do agree. :)

        Sent from my BlackBerry please excuss typos

      • jschmidt2

        thanks for the thoughts. Both parties have lost the art of compromise and consensus.