An aide to one of the state's top Democrats has landed in trouble over a possible ethics violation:
House Speaker James Amann has suspended a top aide for using the Capitol's internal mail system to send political invitations that mistakenly ended up in the hands of Republicans.
Amann suspended Kelly Kirkley-Bey, the daughter of a deputy House speaker, for two weeks without pay Tuesday after two Republican legislators inadvertently received complimentary invitations to Amann's re-election fundraiser via inter-office mail at the state Capitol complex. The state delivery system is designed for governmental, rather than political, mail. (Keating)
Republicans, still smarting from the wounds inflicted upon them by the Lisa Moody hearings, are calling for hearings of their own.
Rep. Robert Farr, a member of the legislative committee holding the Moody hearings, said the Democrat-controlled committee should summon Kirkley-Bey to answer questions about the fund-raiser planned for July 20 at a restaurant in Amann's hometown of Milford.
"Let's get her in here and Amann's staff and talk about how they raise money," said Farr, a West Hartford Republican who is running for attorney general. "If the Democrats feel they have a conflict, Republicans can run the hearing. We'll be fair. ... If they're going to insist on having hearings on Republican issues, then we should have hearings on Democratic issues." (Keating)
Democrats responded by saying that Kirkley-Bey didn't violate election law, so no hearings are necessary or possible.
What bugs me here is that this only came to light because Kirkley-Bey mistakenly sent a few emails to Republicans, who pounced on her. What else is going on that we don't know about?
On the face of it, this seems like a violation that isn't quite as bad as Moody's original infraction. But I can't blame the Republicans for being angry.
Update: An anonymous posted has pointed out the CT News Junkie report that Kirkley-Bey has been in ethics and legal trouble before. Amann apparently gave her a warning about this sort of behavior when he hired her.
Source
Keating, Christopher. "Amann Suspends Top Aide For Letter." Hartford Courant 13 July, 2006.
9 comments:
This also isn't Kirkley-Bey's first offense. She previously was cited for using her state phone for campaign calls. Toss in her Penney's problem, where at her second job she sold leather coats to accomplices for pennies, and her drinking/drug after hours party, hit and run accident, and subsequent flight into John Bailey's back yard to avoid the cops.
But Amann misplayed this - he is implicitly backing the Moody suspension as acceptable, even the model. He should have fired Kelly, said that such conduct is not to be tolerated, and challenged the Governor to do the same. That would have put more fire under Governor Moody's feet.
CTNewsJunkie is reporting that in addition to her prior run in with Elections Enforcement, Kirkley-Bey was arrested for larceny shortly after starting with Amann. He warned her then that he wouldn't tolerate any of this sort of stuff.
To the Republican legislators who knew about this Kirkley-Bey chick's exploits before today and did nothing...shut the hell up. You waited until it was politically expedient for your memorys' to be jogged. This woman should be CANNED so hard her rear-end hurts. I guess it's not just the rich and famous whose kids get reprieve after reprieve for godawful behavior. Anon 9:53am hit it on the head: Amann should have fired her. He has single handedly ceded any "moral high ground" on the Moody issue to call for her firing.
I also heard the arguement, well Moody is the chief of staff to a governor while this woman is but a lowly staffer at the legislature. Well, to those who like to remind people of the separation-of-powers and the separate-but-equal branches of government that our state and national constitutions provide, I would say that both of this people are on equal footing before the law.
The disgraceful, nepotistic, power-hungry, and morally bankrupt leaders of Connecticut government in both parties, who allow these types of poisons to continuously pollute our governmental institutions, need to be fired just as quickly as Moody and Kirkly-Bey.
Amman is an idiot to let this situation go this far. Get it over with and fire her.
The response to the Lamont/Lieberman question on Murphy's website (via Sarah the CM):
I gotta tell you, I'm not sure how many ways I can say this, but I'll say it again: Chris is committed to supporting the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, no matter who emerges victorious from the primary.
Chris MC said... " Southington fully supports him"
ROF,L
Better chat with a few Southington Dems over coffee and in private.
The language used in reference to Murphy is usually reserved by Dems for people like Nixon; he is in fact the most loathed Dem by Dems that I have ever seen.
He's even less (as though that's possible) popular in Wolcott within his own party.
Check your facts; you're usually better than this.
ACR,
You're dead wrong. I'm a Southington Democrat and we give Chris Murphy a lot of credit for the local party being as strong as it is today. He's just what the town needed, and we're all grateful for that.
Jim said... "You're dead wrong. I'm a Southington Democrat"
No way you're a Southington boy if you're posting that tripe.
He's knifed everyone that ever helped him win a race.
How about the fact that she just got recently arrested for something having to do with this entire situation? And also lost her job? Her mother may be a state rep, but that doesn't mean that her mother lives high and mighty as some of you may think....
Plain and simple...she got what she deserved...
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