The New Haven Register editorial board doesn’t go as far as the Danbury News-Times call for Gov. Rell to fire her embattled chief of staff Lisa Moody, but nonetheless rips Rell and calls for the legislature to close the loop hole that currently allows the governor’s CoS to fund raise for Rell politically while working on the state’s clock.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s defense of her chief of staff’s latest campaign finance transgression misses the point completely. M. Lisa Moody, the chief of staff, has once again used her public office to raise campaign money for her boss.

Her conduct violates Rell’s own ethics policy as well as the spirit of the law that prohibits classified state workers from engaging in political activity at work.

Rell says it was entirely proper for Moody to turn over a state list of arts and tourism officials to the manager of her re-election campaign, since the list is a public record. The campaign used the list to mail out requests for campaign donations.

Whether the list is a public record is irrelevant. The concern is that Moody and other members of Rell’s staff used the governor’s office for a private, partisan political purpose.
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The law bars such campaign solicitations from other state workers. It does not cover the governor’s chief of staff. The chief state’s attorney eventually decided not to charge Moody with either perjury or contempt for her legislative testimony.

If Rell has no intention of curbing Moody’s use of the governor’s office as a campaign cash machine, the legislature should act. It needs to close the loophole that allows Moody to raise political money on state time. For good measure, it needs to clarify any vagueness in the law that might allow Moody to escape perjury or contempt charges the next time legislators try to get an honest answer from her. [Emphasis added]

Rell’s willingness to apologize for Moody’s unethical behavior is truly startling considering how Rell first rose to office in the wake of John Rowland’s lawless administration. Rell’s continued comfort with having someone who has repeatedly broken the public trust remain on her staff and thus on the state’s payroll is infuriating.

Connecticut voters deserve an administration, regardless of party affiliation, that respects the value of the money paid into the state’s coffers. That should be true of every line item on the budget, but particularly true for the governor’s chief staffers. We do not deserve to be asked to pay the salary of crooks, weasels, and hacks while they perpetrate the behavior that defines them as crooks, weasels, and hacks.

If Rell cannot recognize that the state’s need for an ethical, honest government outweigh her personal loyalty to this Karl Rove wannabe, Rell should be forced to suffer for her decisions. I’d hope that members of Connecticut legislature take being lied to as an affront to them personally and as representatives of the people of Connecticut. It’s time for them to reign in what is becoming an increasingly lawless administration in the Governor’s office.

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