Sunday Liquor: Campaign Filings Document Extensive Liquor Contributions To Colapietro

James Bailey Brislin
The Carpet City Chronicle

The Enfield Press, February 26, 2009

“Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees; and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.“
—Henry Clay

“Public officers are the servants and agents of the people, to execute laws which the people have made and within the limits of a constitution which they have established.“
—Grover Cleveland

Documents on file with the State Elections Enforcement Commission illustrate an influential state senator’s ties to the liquor industry. Campaign finance filings show that Senator Thomas Colapietro (D-Bristol), the powerful chairman of the General Law Committee, has accepted thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from liquor distributors, retailers, and lobbyists.

Colapietro has extensively benefited from contributions made by liquor retailers associated with the Connecticut Package Store Association (CPSA) and Caroll Hughes, their executive director and lobbyist. Campaign finance records dating back as far as the fourth quarter of 2001 show Colapietro receiving extensive contributions from CPSA officers, liquor stores all over the state, and Hughes. The CPSA is an anti-Sunday liquor sales trade group, representing less then half the package store owners in the state. However, they are among the most vocal up at the Capitol.

This is due in no small part to their retention of Hughes, an experienced Capitol lobbyist who boasts on his website about running, “the first independently established lobbying firm in Connecticut.” Hughes’s client base includes police chiefs, liquor dealers, Catholic hospitals, and trade associations. According to sources within the Capitol, Hughes is a close associate of Colapietro, who wields immense power as chairman of the General Law committee.

Whenever a bill opposing the interests of CPSA comes under consideration in the legislature, Hughes trots out the same old lines. In 2006, a bill was considered to allow package store owners to pass discounts onto their consumers. Hughes and CPSA representatives were among the most vocal opponents. In oral testimony, he expressed his belief that thee bill would probably put 200-250 stores out of business. He stated, “This bill has every earmark to destruction of Connecticut’s liquor industry.” This quote is laughable when juxtaposed against his quote against Sunday liquor sales in The Hartford Courant, “The cost just to keep a store open to try to stay competitive could put about 200 stores out of business, he said. ‘We don’t believe there is any extra revenue from any stores being open a seventh day,’ Hughes said. Whenever a bill threatening the anti-free enterprise agenda of CPSA is brought under consideration, it threatens to close at least two-hundred stores. The overuse of this line makes one wonder whether Caroll Hughes is the boy who cried wolf.

For years, both Colapietro and Hughes have profited handsomely from this association. Hughes has gained the ready assistance of a legislator sympathetic to the interests of his lobbying clients. Meanwhile, Colapietro has benefited handsomely from campaign contributions funneled by Hughes and the trade groups represented by him.

For example, Colapietro’s filing from the fourth quarter of 2001 shows several thousand dollars in contributions by liquor interests, including a $250 contribution by CPSA. During the same quarter, Colapietro received $200 in contributions from the “Life Underwriters PAC”. Caroll Hughes is listed as the PAC treasurer. Additionally, Hughes made a $300 personal contribution to Colapietro’s campaign committee. His wife, Jean Cronin, donated $200. What is extraordinary is that this is ordinary.

Nary an election cycle goes by without the liquor lobby making substantial contributions to Colapietro. In the most recent cycle, Colapietro received more than $2500 in contributions from liquor stores from outside his district and his region. Why would liquor retailers from East Lyme, Vernon, Marlborough, and Tolland contribute to Colapietro’s campaign, except to garner the support of the chairman of the General Law Committee?

It is Colapietro’s staunch opposition to Sunday liquor sales that brings these multitudinous contributions into stark contrast. It is not illegal for Colapietro to accept campaign contributions from liquor dealers located throughout the state. However, it creates an appearance of impropriety, particularly given his role in single-handedly stopping legislation legalizing Sunday liquor sales.

As the Co-Chairman of the General Law Committee, Colapietro controls which items appear on the committee’s agenda. Colapietro has used procedural tactics to prevent the Sunday liquor sales bill from emerging from committee for a full floor vote. It is an undemocratic concentration of power, that has put the interests of a vocal minority of liquor stores and their lobbyists ahead of consumers and the common good.