Elections enforcement agency penalizes former CT mayor for violating contribution rules
The State Elections Enforcement Commission fined a former Rocky Hill leader for delivering falsified campaign contribution cards to Mayor Lisa Marotta’s 2022 campaign for state Senate, but concluded that neither Marotta nor her campaign treasurer knew about it.
When Marotta’s campaign was trying to show enough private contributions to qualify for state campaign financing, Henry Vasel provided a list of numerous $5 donors all attributed to different names — but signed with identical handwriting, according to the commission.
In an agreement finalized on Wednesday, Vasel agreed to pay a $750 fine, but steadfastly maintained the matter was a mistake, not intentional.
“(Vasel) asserts that he forwarded the contribution cards to the campaign in error and that any violations were by mistake,” according to the agreement. “Further, respondent asserts that he assisted the campaign and potential contributors in good faith and did not act with malicious intent.”
But the five-page agreement signed by Vasel and Commissioner Stephen Penny also said “Vasel admitted he filled out contribution forms for six individuals and delivered the false certifications along with cash to the campaign.”
The incident happened in 2022 during Marotta’s unsuccessful campaign for state Senate, and is unconnected to her current re-election bid for mayor. That election is Tuesday.
“The timing two days before Election Day is curious, but we appreciate the SEEC’s attention to this matter,” Marotta said Friday.
The commission also emphasized that Marotta and her 2022 campaign treasurer, Julie Eisenhaur, “fully cooperated” when it worked to validate the donor signatures.
“There is no evidence that the candidate or treasurer participated in the falsifying of contributions,” it said.
Connecticut law allows candidates to get public campaign financing if they receive a set minimum of private donations first. It strictly regulates how those donations are documented; donors are required to sign certifications stating that they’re giving their own money and not donating on behalf of someone else. Campaigns are responsible for ensuring that those rules are followed.
The SEEC said that when it reviewed donors to the 2022 Marotta4Senate campaign, numerous certification sheets were signed with numerous names but in identical handwriting. Those donations and certifications had been delivered to the campaign by Vasel, even though he held no position in the campaign organization.
Vasel, a one-term mayor about two decades ago, said Friday that he merely did a favor for a elderly friend who’d actually gathered the donations. Vasel said he’d signed forms to show the friend how to complete them, essentially as a sample of how they could be completed. But he said he intended that only as a demonstration and never meant for those sheets to be turned in.
“My elderly friend had just lost his wife, he asked me if I could pick up the papers and drop them off for him. They were in an envelope, and I never looked inside,” Vasel said. “I didn’t do anything wrong, but I wasn’t going to throw him under the bus. He’s in his 90s and he was confused, he told the SEEC he couldn’t remember. So I took the hit.”
Vasel said that part of his agreement with the SEEC was the that the friend’s name wouldn’t be publicized.
The SEEC noted that after learning of potential irregularities, the 2022 campaign separated the donations provided through Vasel, and didn’t count them toward the minimum to qualify for state financing. Instead, it submitted other donations that were fully validated, and reached the goal. Nevertheless, she lost to incumbent Matt Lesser that year.
