Donovan Stays On Message
by Christine Stuart | Jun 11, 2012 5:30am
(13) Comments | Commenting has expired
Posted to: Congress, Election 2012
House Speaker Chris Donovan maintained he did nothing wrong Sunday during an appearance on WFSB’s “Face the State.” It’s a statement he’s echoed for the past week as he’s faced questions about the federal undercover investigation which lead to the arrest of his campaign finance director.
During the approximately 15-minute interview with Dennis House, Donovan talked about how the people he had trusted let him down.
“It was like a punch in the stomach,” he said.
Donovan’s official statement to the media last Sunday came after he fired the people involved including Robert Braddock Jr., the 33 year old finance director who was charged with conspiracy to conceal the names of donors seeking to influence legislation, Josh Nassi, the campaign manager and longtime friend who has been identified as co-conspirator 3, and Sara Waterfall, the deputy finance director, who has not been named or charged in the federal investigation.
“I really can’t talk about the investigation but I was disappointed in people that I placed trust in and I took immediate action to remove them from the campaign,” Donovan said.
Donovan also hired former U.S. Attorney Stanley Twardy to conduct an independent investigation of the campaign’s finances.
Donovan maintained he did not know that some members of his staff were allegedly seeking to trade his influence as speaker for $20,000 in campaign donations. As soon as he discovered it, he said he fired them.
House asked about why he waited until four days after the federal investigation was released to the press to offer an explanation for how something like this could have happened. Republican lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy called on Donovan to offer an explanation.
“I had to right the ship, I had to start an investigation and I had get things back on track,” Donovan said.
He said after last Sunday’s news conference he received a call from Malloy thanking him for holding the press conference.
“He said it was the right thing to do,” Donovan recalled.
But how much Donovan knew and when he knew it has been the subject of endless editorials and opinion columns in newspapers across the state for the past week.
At one point House tried to gauge Donovan’s involvement with the day-to-day operations of the campaign by asking the question, “How many paid employees does the campaign have?”
Donovan: I really don’t have that number right now, but its I don’t know…
House: 5, 10, 20?
Donovan: I’d say 5 to 10. Somewhere in there.
Dennis: So it’s a small group?
Donovan: We have some field staff right now and we have others as well.
House: How involved are you in the day-to-day management of the campaign?
Donovan: I have a campaign manger. My job is to go meet the people, talk to the people. That’s my job.
Donovan Campaign Manager Tom Swan said in a phone interview Sunday that’s exactly the answer he wants to hear from his candidate.
The show is taped on Thursdays and Swan said Donovan would have no idea where Swan was with hiring and firing staff or which person was a vendor, consultant, or volunteer.
“It was a ridiculous question,” Swan said.
He said the campaign has seen major growth over the past few weeks and there could be 100 volunteers in an office at any given time. He said Donovan doesn’t know which ones are being paid and which ones are volunteers.
“It’s a very fluid number,” Swan said.
“The mail vendor, pollster, and media guy are not staff per say and just this week we had two fellows and several interns join the campaign. I wouldn’t necessarily call them staff.”
As far as which positions will be delegated to volunteers and which will go to paid staffers, Swan said it‘s a matter of “form follows function.”
“I may not be running traditional campaign, but I’m not going show mine unless they show theirs,” Swan said unwilling to give away his campaign strategy to Donovan’s opponents in the primary and general election.
Swan said he thinks his candidate did a great job on the show despite some of the “gotcha” line of questioning by House, but he did misspeak at one point saying he hadn’t spoken with U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy when as of Thursday night he had in fact spoken to him. Murphy is running for the U.S. Senate and will face former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz on Aug. 14.
Donovan and Murphy spent time together this weekend too. Both appeared at an AFSCME picnic on Saturday and Netroots Nation, an annual convention of progressive bloggers in Providence, Rhode Island.
House pointed out that neither Murphy or Malloy have endorsed his campaign. Donovan told House that it’s not unusual for that to happen when there’s a primary.
Donovan faces former state Rep. Elizabeth Esty and Dan Roberti in the Aug. 14 Democratic primary. On the Republican side Sen. Andrew Roraback is the endorsed candidate and will primary Lisa Wilson-Foley, Justin Bernier, and Mark Greenberg.
Tags: Chris Donovan, federal investigation, Robert Braddock, Josh Nassi, Tom Swan, Dennis House, Face the State
(13) Comments
posted by: Noteworthy | June 11, 2012 6:29am
What Donovan had to do in the wake of the arrests by the FBI might take 2 hours - Call a political friend (Swan) for help in damage control - check; fire employees involved, check; call a Republican and pretend to launch a real internal investigation, check; go underground, check.
Donovan sounds like a guy who has not had to really run for office - ever - that he has just kind of run and won. That he doesn’t know how many employees he has is extraordinary.
posted by: Tim White 1 | June 11, 2012 7:31am
When it comes to paid staffers… not only does Donovan claim ignorance, Swan supports that ridiculous notion.
They both sound foolish.
But this does give some useful insight into why CT raised taxes, yet we’re still in the red.
Presumably Donovan doesn’t know how many people are employed by the state. But doesn’t that beg the question… why more money for the state, if Donovan doesn’t even know how many employees we have? He probably doesn’t even want to know what they do because he says… he’s supposed to be meeting people! He can’t get caught up in the humdrum of managing.
posted by: Reasonable | June 11, 2012 1:51pm
Noteworthy: Donovan has more pressing things on his mind—right now, othe than the number of employees on the state payroll—and his days on the state payroll are numbered.
posted by: Tessa Marquis | June 12, 2012 11:02am
re # of people on payroll. I have a small business. I have between 4 and 10 people on payroll at any given time. 4 full time, 3-5 interns, 2-3 contracted consultants.
Got a problem with this, Dennis House & Tim White?
That’s how businesses (and campaigns) work.
posted by: Palema | June 12, 2012 6:15pm
It’s quite true that running for Congress is not at all the same as running a campaign. That’s why they hire campaign managers.
posted by: Reasonable | June 13, 2012 4:51pm
Christopher Donovan meets the criteria of a U.S. Congressmen. He massively raised our state taxes and still has our state in a deficit spending mode—just like Chris Murphy accomplished in the U.S. Congress. Murphy now wants to be elected again—to keep spending our country into oblivion. Chris Donovan has the same, proven political loser qualifications—based on his documented deficit spending record in the Connecticut General Assembly. We cannot afford to be electing proven fiscally incompetent losers like Murphy and Donovan into office.
Voters must start displaying some election sanity, or we will all need to start learning the Chinese language.
posted by: Reasonable | June 13, 2012 7:23pm
In “political bedfellow fashion,” it is ironic that Gov. Malloy thanked Donovan for holding a press conference.
posted by: Palema | June 14, 2012 7:55am
It’s also noteworthy that Donovan has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
posted by: Reasonable | June 17, 2012 9:33pm
Palema: Have patience. The probe is not over. It’s only a matter of time.
posted by: Palema | June 18, 2012 5:29am
@“Reasonable” You have found Donovan guilty of something he has not been charged with because… he is a Democrat? You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
posted by: Reasonable | June 18, 2012 10:04am
Palema: How can anyone find Donovan guilty? He hasn’t been charged YET….in any case, Democrats have to play by the rules. If he is charged—it won’t be because he is a Democrat—so don’t defend Donovan—
unless he is charged. Yet, you sound like a Democrat who is UNSURE about Donovan’s involvement in this FBI probe.
posted by: ... | June 18, 2012 10:09am
No need to worry Reasonable, Chinese is too difficult a language for a large portion of Americans to learn, especially those who are retired. Then again, retirees do have all the time in the world to learn any language they fancy :p. Donovan’s gonna stay on message to keep this story as dead as possible up to the primary. If/When he wins, it’ll be Roraback’s race to lose. Unless any of those 8,929 bones hits a raw nerve in his campaign.
posted by: Matt W. | June 18, 2012 2:27pm
My guess is that the FBI did not set up a sting operation to catch Robert Braddock Jr funnel a piddly $10k. I’m guessing that Mr. Braddock is probably singing like an American Idol right about now while he tries to avoid prison. However, I’m willing to give Donovan the benefit of the doubt and let the process play out. His record is full of reasons not to vote for him. There’s no reason to guess about whether or not he’s also a criminal.