MattyDaddy

I’ve said I’m going to create a website tracking what happens in Connecticut the bills, the votes, the money, and the people responsible. I started last night. One of the first things I want to examine is Pfizer’s announced $650 million investment in Groton. Who is paying, what agreements exist and what role elected officials actually played. Bob Duff and Joe de la Cruz have already issued statements celebrating it. Welcoming a company’s investment is easy. If officials claim they helped make it happen, I want to see exactly what they did and the documents supporting it. I also want to examine Pfizer’s Connecticut lobbying how much it spends, which firms it hires, and what legislation or administrative decisions those lobbyists are trying to influence. As president of CTRAMM, I’m familiar with these disclosure requirements because we file with Connecticut’s Office of State Ethics ourselves. Our reported spending has included marketing and food brought to the Capitol. Those records allow the public to see what organizations spend trying to influence government. Again I started looking through organizations’ filings last night. Yale’s reported spending caught my attention, along with the different lobbying registrations associated with it. I believe they might spend more than any other lobbyist organization in the state BUT I want to check those figures carefully, compare the same reporting periods, and avoid counting the same money twice before publishing totals. The website will identify clients, lobbying firms, registered lobbyists, reported spending, and the issues listed in their disclosures. Wherever possible, I’ll connect those records to specific bills, votes, and outcomes so people can examine the evidence themselves. After my own home address was doxxed publicly by Joe De La Cruz, I know how personal this can become. I’ll redact private home addresses of communicator lobbyists but that’s it. People can dig deeper as I will provide the public links. Connecticut residents deserve to know who is spending money to influence their government, what they’re asking for, and what happens afterward. I’m going to start putting those records where people can actually find and understand them. @kateinthemix