The Tip Of An Ethical Iceberg

To the Editor:

When I read in the news that Chris LaRocque was the first candidate this year to be denied state funding from the Citizen’s Grant Program for his bid to become the a Newtown state representative, I wondered if there wasn’t another side to the story. After all, the complaint originated with one of his competitor’s, Christopher Lyddy, supporters. So, I looked more closely at this candidate and situation, and am now troubled by what I have learned.

Mr LaRocque worked for over a year as a development officer for the University of Hartford. He made his living fundraising, yet is quoted in the press as stating that “the law is complicated and we made some mistakes.” I read the law. It seems extremely straightforward to me, certainly one a former development officer for a major university would understand. There are two primary requirements that must be met for each grant submission. First, that each applicant for state representative campaign funding must obtain a minimum of $5,000 in donations. Second, that those donations come from at least 150 of his constituents. While Mr LaRocque contends that only “a small percentage” of names were found to be fraudulent, those 18 straw donors actually represent greater than ten percent of the total amount of names required for the grant submission. That is not such a small percentage after all, and is one I consider to be not only “statistically significant,” but also rather alarming.

Misrepresenting donors seems pretty straightforward to me. It is an error in judgment that any candidate for office — or his supporters — should not engage in regardless of whether or not the grant guidelines expressly prohibit it. Development officers know that all of their facts must be as accurate as possible. Truthfulness is the cornerstone of fundraising and grant writing. If Mr LaRocque was aware of this misinformation prior to his submission of the grant request, then I consider this to be a serious ethical breach. On the other hand, if Mr LaRocque’s supporter took it upon himself to independently mislead signers and/or forge donation records, I consider this to be a failure of Mr LaRocque’s leadership.

Last week, Mr LaRocque was quoted in the news as saying, “I don’t think people really understand or care about state finance stuff in general.” I think Mr LaRocque is wrong. I do care, and I do understand, and I know that I am not the only voter in Newtown concerned that this might just be the tip of this ethical iceberg.

Suzanne Letso

93 Poverty Hollow Road, Newtown                           August 24, 2010