Congressman John B. Larson, D-1st District, and former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin clashed Tuesday over Larson’s increased use of congressionally funded digital ads since Bronin began his challenge for the Democratic nomination.
Bronin said Larson used his congressional office budget to spend $121,000 on digital ads in the three months after Bronin announced his challenge last summer, compared to just $10,500 in the previous year and nothing the year before.
“This is an extraordinary departure from his past practice,” Bronin said. “This is clearly an effort to use taxpayer dollars to boost and prop up his political campaign.”
Larson’s spokesman, Charles Perosino, said the digital ads comported with House rules and were explicitly approved in a advisory opinion by the Bipartisan Communications Standards Commission.
Bronin said he was likely to file an ethics complaint that the most recent of Larson’s publicly paid digital ads fell within a 60-day blackout period on congressionally funded mass communications before an election.
While the Federal Election Commission considers the state nominating convention on May 11 to be an election, the House does not. It lists the blackout period as beginning on June 12, 60 days before the Democratic primary.
“Luke Bronin is wrong,” Perosino said in a statement. “Everything we spend is approved by a bipartisan commission and fully complies with ethics laws.”
Perosino did not address the increase in the digital ads since Bronin and two others opened campaigns against Larson. The spending on digital ads since Jan. 1 is not yet publicly available.
“It’s interesting that Bronin would launch such cynical and misleading attacks, especially considering the hundreds of thousands of Hartford taxpayer dollars he spent in promotional ads as mayor as he was preparing to run for governor,” Perosino said.
According to a story posted in December 2023 by the Hartford Business Journal, the advertising campaign was organized by the leaders of the Hartford Yard Goats and the Connecticut Science Center to promote the city’s museums, theaters, galleries and sports venues. The budget was $300,000, including $100,000 in in-kind contributions and $200,000 from the city.
Bronin was then a lame duck leaving office after declining to run for a third term. Neither his name nor likeness were featured in the promotions.
